One Surprise After Another
by Peace.Love.CSI
Summary: Nick and Sara Pairing. The team has noticed that something is off with Nick and Sara, and are beginning to wonder what is actually happening with them. They soon find out it is not what they had expected. Big surprises are in for ALL the members of the graveyard shift. Now Complete. Maybe a sequel in the far future. IN THE PROCESS OF EDITING FOR SPELLING & GRAMMAR.
1. She's Late

Sara walked back and forth gently rocking the baby. She had just settled down. Becca was really cute, and looked so tiny, but so loud. This was the first time that she had stopped crying long enough to fall asleep. In 4 hours Sara had almost lost her mind. She had tried everything she could possibly think of, and yet she just cried and cried. And, now Holly was running late.

This was Holly's first night out since Becca had been born, 7 months ago. While out with Danny, she had lost track of time and been late picking up Becca, just as Sara had predicted, which made Sara late for work. She ran around trying to get ready once Holly and Becca were gone, and then grabbed her keys and her jacket and ran out the door.

15 minutes later the entire team, except for Sara and Grissom were waiting around in the break room for assignments. Everyone was getting worried about Sara who never called out or arrived at work late. She was almost a permanent fixture in the lab. She was just always there, and her not being here seemed to throw everybody off. Nick was the most worried, he had worked the last case with her and mentioned to the team that she had taken it really hard. After another 5 minutes Grissom walked in, taking his sweet time. After a moment he took a sweeping gaze around the room and realized that Sara was not present. Knowing she only lived 20 minutes away he tried calling her cell phone. She could get here within an hour if she was still asleep.

"No answer." The team seemed to tense as they realized that something might be wrong.

Catherine's motherly instincts kicked in and she took charge. "Call Brass and have him put out an APB on her and a BOLO on her car. We should probably call the hospitals too." She said the last part in a whisper directed at her shoes.

"Who has a recent picture of Sara? I know I don't." Grissom looked around the room and Nick jumped up.

"I do." He pulled out his wallet and flipped through the many pictures he had stored in there of his family, himself and the team, and of course, Sara. He had to find the most recent; there were pictures dating back to the very first day that the two had spent time together outside of work. "Of course it was the last picture in the whole damn wallet," Nick murmured "it's from her birthday last week."

Catherine smiled at him and Warrick nodded and gave him subtle thumbs up, but Grissom took the picture and walked out of the room, his phone already at his ear. Nobody seemed to think it was weird that Nick had a picture of Sara in his wallet, or if they did they kept it to themselves. It wasn't odd for the team to hang out after work, or take each other out on their birthdays.

Just as the worry was really starting to set in, and Nick had started pacing, his phone rang. A small picture of Sara with frosting smeared across her cheeks popped up on his screen, and the ringtone he had picked out special for her calls played loud and clear.

Nick wasted no time in flipping open his phone. "Sara?"

"Good evening. This is Doctor Malone from Desert Palm Hospital, is this Mr. Stokes?"

Nick's face instantly fell. "Yes sir, this is Nick Stokes."

"Well, Mr. Stokes, I assume that you know a Miss Sara Sidle?"

He nodded then realized that the doctor couldn't see him. "Yeah I do. Is she ok? Has something happened to her?"

"She's been in an accident. She had you down on her records as a next-of-kin. Could you come down here as soon as possible?"

"Is she… is she dead doctor?" He managed to stutter, his throat suddenly on fire.

The team, who had been listening to Nick's half of the phone conversation reacted instantly; Catherine's eyes filled with tears while Warrick and Greg avoided each other's gaze, playing with their hands and invisible lint on their pants as they, too, began to tear up at the prospect.

"Oh no, sir." Nick let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. "I can't release any details about the patient over the phone; however, I can assure you that all of the injuries she's suffering from are very minor. In fact, she should make a full recovery soon."

"Thank God."

"I'm going to need you here soon though, there is quite a bit of paperwork that still needs to be filled out, and as her next of kin, the duty of filling out her insurance information falls to you on her behalf."

"Yes, of course, I'll be there as soon as possible. Thank you." He wiped away the lone tear that had slipped down his cheek, and breathed a heavy sigh of relief as he hung up the phone. "Grissom, I have got to go. You can cancel everything you just put out, the APB, the Bolo, she's fine, but they need me there to fill out some paperwork. I'll call you later once I have all the details!"

He ran out of the room, his mind was going full speed with all the scenarios that could have put his Sara in the hospital. He needed to see her, and make sure she was safe for himself. He couldn't lose her. He walked and ran out to his car; he got to the hospital in record time, and remembered nothing of the drive. The receptionists made him fill out stacks of paper about her insurance and medical history; the ones that no one can quite decipher, especially when all they want to do is make sure that the person they're filling them out for is okay.

Once he had finished filling out all the information, and handed the clipboard back to the bored looking receptionist, Dr. Malone came out and asked to speak with him.

"Well, Mr. Stokes–" The doctor began.

Nick cut him off, ever the Southern gentleman, trying to be polite even while he was more than worried about Sara's health. "Nick is just fine."

The doctor smiled at him and nodded. "Nick, I see that you're listed as her next of kin. How are you related to Ms. Sidle?"

"Oh! We're not biologically related. She's well… she's special to me, I love her very much."

The older man looked at Nick and saw the light come back into the man's eyes for a brief moment as he mentioned the young girl, and with a slight smile told him, "Anyone that would fill out that mountain of insurance paperwork on someone else's behalf has to be in love. Her room is just through this set of doors, if you wouldn't mind following me. I can also go ahead and update you on her condition now, or I can wait until after you've seen her, if you'd prefer."

Eagerly Nick nodded his agreement and moved to follow the doctor toward Sara's room.

"This way please."

The doctor led him to a room just off of the ICU waiting room, 223. He would have to remember that for when he called the team to give him an update, if he could ever get one. Nick walked in expecting to see her awake, hopefully sitting up, and maybe a small smile. But she was unconscious. He shot a glare towards the doctor, tears welling up in his eyes.

"You said she was fine!" His tone was accusatory, and the tears building up in his eyes were threatening to fall.

"Ms. Sidle is in a medically induced coma. She wasn't responding well to all of the pain and we had to put her under so we could complete all the necessary tests to check her condition, without her responding in a negative way."

"Don't you need permission to do something like that? As far as I know, Sara's medical record indicates that she doesn't respond well to drugs as a whole, including whatever sedative you used to knock her out, doesn't it?" Nick asked, already knowing the answer.

"No, sir. Perhaps that was the case the last time you were with her; however, I have a statement in her file form the last time she was here, that in the event of an emergency, and there is no one here on her behalf, we can proceed as necessary to save her life." The doctor explained.

"I'm sorry, sir. I know you haven't briefed me on her condition just yet, but looking at her, it doesn't seem as if she's suffering any visible life-threatening injuries, so unless you're not telling me something, I don't see how this was classified as an emergency. Sara hates medicine, and if I had been notified of your decision as her next of kin, earlier, I would have been able to tell you that."

"I'm sorry Mr. Stokes, but you weren't here and it was important for her mental health as well as her physical health. We couldn't have her in pain while testing her for brain damage, and the like. I'm sure you realize we wouldn't do anything to endanger your friend."

Nick ran his hand through his hand and tried to calm himself down, realizing quickly that being angry wouldn't help Sara any. He lowered his voice to an eerily quiet tone that did little to cover his true feelings on the situation, "Fine. You're the doctor, and I'm sure whatever decision you made was the best one at that point in time; however, from now on, I expect any and every decision about her health to go through me. No matter how trivial it may seem, if you have the time and ability to ask me for input, I expect you to do so."

Grissom and the team walked in, shift having just ended. They stood behind Nick and heard his little outburst.

"It would be in your best interest if you calmed down, Mr. Stokes. We can certainly try to garner your input on some issues from now on, but some decisions will obviously still be out of your control. After all, we are the trained professionals."

Nick balked at the man's obvious arrogance, and could no longer control his ever-growing anger, "Excuse me. You medicated my fiancé into an unnecessary coma, without my permission, and you're telling me to calm down? What if she doesn't wake up?" He added the last part in a harsh whisper.

"Mr. Stokes, I think we know what is best for our patient. If you love Sara, you need to calm down and respect the decisions that we made as doctors for her well being."

Hearing the doctor speak to him as if he were a child sent him over the edge again, and he exploded at the doctor. "Do you know that she's allergic to pine tree sap? Or that she can't eat strawberries because they make her hands itch? Or that she hates hospitals because the smell of them makes sick to her stomach?"

"No, Mr. Stokes, I didn't." The doctor admitted in a tired tone, wary of what Nick might say next.

"That's right, and you don't know enough about her to know what's best for Sara. Perhaps if you had checked with her or me, you would have known that she would have rather suffered the pain than take unnecessary medication."

"As I said before, we can have some of these kinds of decisions come through you in the future…"

"Not can, you will." He turned on his heel and very nearly walked right into Grissom standing with the team, not even 10 feet from where he had gone off on the doctor. He instantly blushed, realizing that the majority of his close friends had seen his burst of anger in the middle of the hospital corridor.

"How much of that did you hear?" Nick asked, embarrassed.

Greg, who looked like he couldn't contain himself any longer blurted out."You're engaged to Sara?"


	2. Explaning

"Your fiancé?" Warrick asked with a knowing smirk on his face.

Catherine broke into a huge smile that overtook her entire face. She ran to hug Nick. "Congratulations! How long?"

He smiled and hugged her back. "Three and a half months as of Tuesday."

Warrick came over and gave Nick a hard slap on the back. "Way to go man. How'd you manage to keep it a secret all this time?"

Looking slightly ashamed at being caught keeping a secret from those he considered to be his family, he started to explain, "War, we really didn't mean to keep it a secret, but neither of us wanted the extra pressure and…"

Warrick held up his hand and motioned for him to stop. "Honestly, it's cool man. Congratulations."

"Thanks." Nick uttered in relief, noticing that none of his teammates looked upset at his withholdings.

Still slightly out of it, Sara subconsciously stirred at the sound of the familiar raised voices in her room. The last thing she remembered was getting into her car, and turning onto the highway to get to work, what seemed like two minutes ago. Gaining consciousness, she smiled at the warm words being exchanged about their relationship, and felt slightly surprised as she heard even Grissom utter his congratulations. Once she had mustered the energy to actually open her eyes, she smiled at the group of people occupying the chairs in her room.

After a moment, she felt confident enough to speak. "Hey, I'm getting married too guys!"

"We could never ignore you, especially Nick here. You should have seen the way he chewed out your doctor." Greg added with a laugh.

A smile bigger than Nick's overtook her face and Catherine came over to hug her and Nick too up his position as fiancé, and sat in the char next to the bed holding her hand.

She turned towards him and raised her eyebrows. "Did you hit him?"

"No…" Nick said, raising his eyebrows. "Why would I?"

"I had to make sure my fiancé wouldn't be going to jail for assaulting my doctor." She leaned over and kissed his cheek.

After a few minutes of relative silence, Nick began to update Sara on everything that was going on, letting her know that she was being moved from the ICU to a regular room for observation, to make sure that she didn't develop a concussion, and then how tomorrow she was being released; however, before he could finish Jim Brass and Sofia came in. Sofia had a bouquet of flowers that she sat in the vase on her side table, next to the bouquet from the team, and a drawing from Lindsey. Her blanket from home was on her lap and her bear, which no one but Nick knew she still had, was lying under her pillow.

Brass said that he hated to kick everyone out so soon after arriving, but he had a statement to take. When everyone but Nick got up and walked out he looked at him.

"Do you think that you're special Stokes? I said everybody out for a few minutes." Brass said in a harsh tone.

"Well, you can try and move me, but I'm not leaving my fiancé's side. I don't think she needs to be alone in her condition." Nick retorted in much the same tone as his supervisor.

"Your fiancé? Congratulations." He grabbed a notebook and a pen and sat on the end of the bed. He motioned for her to start and she did.

"Well, I was driving my new car to the lab, and I was in a rush. I had been watching my friend Holly's daughter Becca, and she was late coming to pick her up. So, I grabbed my keys and literally ran out the door. I actually tripped on our tattered Welcome mat. But, I got to… What road is that grocery store on, the one with the stuff, and that guy? "

Nick thought about it for a second and then smiled as he remembered the exact store she was talking about. "Excalibur Avenue?"

"Right, I got to there and a dark blue hummer hit me from the side. I'm pretty sure I rolled 3 times, but I was a little dizzy." She smiled gravely and continued. "I put out my arm to stop my head from going through the windshield, since the airbag hadn't released just yet, and it flew backwards and slammed against the steering wheel which is how I bent my wrist back. It's possibly sprained... anyways, the car was right-side up and I could have climbed out, but my foot was stuck between the gas and the brake, and in trying pull it out, I yanked so hard that I twisted my ankle, and when it finally came loose I was still pushing upwards. I remember hitting my head on the roof, and that's all I remember until I woke up here to everyone in my room. Oh, and the license plate was N3H7- something. Sorry that's all I can remember, but with the type of car you should be able to get a match."

Brass nodded. "Good Job Sar. I'm glad you're okay. If we need anything else-"

"You know where to find me." She smiled at him and watched as he left the room with Sofia.

As Brass and Sofia were leaving the doctor came in with a whole host of test results, for everything from a CAT scan for her head to some X-Rays of her hand and leg, to her BAC when she was brought in. He walked in the door, but when he noticed Nick he had the good sense to take a few steps back. Carefully and watching Nick the entire time, he moved a few steps to the left so he was on the other side of Sara's bed but still maintained stood a good 5 feet of distance away from Nick who was currently shooting him deaths glares.

"Well, it seems that we were wrong in our initial diagnosis. The x-rays show that you only bruised your ankle and fractured your wrist. A fracture quite a bit less serious than the severe break we had anticipated and will heal much faster. You will still need to take it easy for a week, and then you can return to work on desk duty only until you get the all clear from me."

"So, I can go home?" Sara perked up and smiled at Nick, who reassuringly squeezed her hand.

"Well, we still have to cast that fracture so you won't accidentally move it more than you should and hurt it worse. After 3 weeks, we can remove the cast to check out the fracture, if it seems to be healing we can leave it off, and replace it with a brace. Or we could keep the cast longer, and skip the brace."

"Can't I just use the brace? I'm not really that fond of casts. They're just so ugly, and they always come in black, so that they don't go with anything." Sara was whining. But she didn't want a cast. Nick heard it in her voice and was ready to make her get one regardless, he was already worried about her as it was, and she didn't need to hurt herself anymore than she already had.

"No, you need to wear a cast for at least 3 weeks. But, if you want a 'pretty' cast, I have our specialist coming in to cast you in about 30 minutes, I can have him do that for you, then I can have a technician paint it for you." He looked nervously over at Nick, looking for his approval. Nick contained his laughter. He must have really scared him with all that yelling. He smiled graciously at the doctor and nodded.

"Okay, thank you doctor." She smirked. "Any color you say?"

The specialist came and made a mold of her arm to make her a correctly fitting brace, he showed her an example of what it would look like. It was covered in laces and Velcro straps, and it was black. Sara tried her hardest to convince the specialist to let her spray paint it pink and green, but she refused, she said it would make the brace soggy and useless. Sara sighed, but then made sure that she got two colors for her cast. After a small argument and a dark stare, she got pink and green stripes.

Nick thought that the pink and green looked funny, but Sara liked it and he was going to keep his thoughts to himself, instead he asked the specialist when she could get it off.

"At the longest, 4 weeks. Then you are going to have to wear the brace for 2 weeks after that, only doing light field work, with absolutely no heavy lifting or strenuous activity."

Sara looked up. "I can't work for 4 weeks?"

"At least three. But maybe we could get married and plan the honeymoon, and settle on that house we wanted. You would finally have the time. It's all planned, why not do it?"

"Really?" She asked, her eyes wide and her mind turning with all the possibilities.

The technician took this time to gather up all her stuff and slip out the door.

"Yeah. I sent my mom your plans and if you want, we can do it in my parent's backyard." Nick offered, his eyes lighting up as he talked about the wedding. He knew that his parent's wouldn't mind, in fact they had been more than excited when he had pitched the idea to them in the first place.

"What about the team?" She didn't want to get married without her friends and family there with her.

"I've got to have my best man don't I? They'd be coming too." He grabbed her hand and gave it a quick squeeze. As much as the crash was a horrible thing, and as sorry as Nick was that Sara got hurt, this was the perfect time for them to plan the wedding and finally get married.

She smiled. "Let's do it."

He smiled and kissed her softly on the lips. A gentle 'I Love You' was whispered and left the room in silence. It was nice, just sitting there holding hands. If they weren't in the hospital it would have been perfect.

"So where are we going to go for our honeymoon? "Sara questioned, a smirk resting on her face. She knew he already had it planned, now if he would just tell her.

"I figure we could do Paris. Like the last week of your forced vacation? Then you won't have that." He looked at the cast and shuddered. She playfully smacked him in the arm." I could build up some vacation time, while you organize some last minute wedding details; I think we both have two weeks built up. You're getting leave for this, and it doesn't count. We could both take two weeks and do the wedding and the honeymoon."

She thought about what he said, and her entire face lit up into a huge smile." Paris? Really? That would be so amazing."

"Okay, good. I took the liberty of booking us a suite for the second week in October." Nick said, obviously proud of himself.

"I heard that Paris is the prettiest in the fall."

"Me too." His smile widened at her excitement, he was glad she was excited about their trip. He had hoped she would like it. He almost forgot about his other news but remembered just in time." Oh, and I pulled us off the schedule for Thanksgiving, and since you and I were the first to request the time off, we both got it."

"We don't have to work on our first Thanksgiving together? That's so cool! "She kissed him to show her appreciation for his thoughtfulness.

"Yeah, how would you feel about spending it in Texas, then we can spend Christmas wherever you want: here, or at my parent's house, or with your brother."

She smiled and nodded, leaning back and closing her eyes for a few moments, before she shot up again with a worried look on her face. "You did tell your parents about all of these plans right? And they don't mind us coming down for the wedding, and hosting the reception? It's a lot to dump on them for the 3 weeks we're giving them to do everything."

"Yes, they know. I'll have you know I suffered quite a lot. It was brutal, I told her I was engaged, and she shrieked, then yelled it up to my dad, then announced it at the dinner table. It all amounted to six consecutive calls while I was trying to work a scene."

She laughed. "That's what that was? Greg told me it was a bunch of calls from your girlfriends. I was so mad that day."

"No wonder…" He said in mock-seriousness. Then he gave in and laughed. "You wouldn't even look at me during dinner, I was trying to tell you that my sisters called to tell us congratulations but you wouldn't hear of it."

"Oh Nicky, I'm so sorry." She said in a sarcastic tone.

"You are not. Don't lie to me." He wiggled his fingers. "The tickle monster is going to get you." That was another one of her weaknesses. She was one of the most ticklish people that he knew.

"Okay." She was laughing too hard to even get out a full sentence. "I … Give … Up."

"What are the magic words?"

"I love you?" She guessed and smiled at him hopefully, batting her eyes and stalling while he had taken his hands off of her.

"Of course." He leaned down and kissed her. "I love you too."


	3. Nick and Sara's House

Nick and Sara had been living together since they got engaged a few months ago . Sara had sold her apartment and moved into Nick's little house, she already spent most of her time there anyway and it wasn't much of an adjustment for her to move the rest of her clothes and furniture into their new home. They had each put about half of their furniture into storage, and decided this was a good arrangement until they were going to purchase something more permanent . But , since they were getting married , and they finally had the time to do it , Sara would look for houses online , then show them to Nick if she really liked them . By the time they had a day off together , there were 10 possible houses . Hopefully by the end of the day they would have a house together . Something that was theirs , will all of their furniture ,and a backyard and lots of pictures all over the walls .

The first two houses were obviously false advertising . They were horrible , both has no grass , peeling paint. They were located in a bad neighborhood, with shot up street signs and everything. The next one was huge , 4 bedrooms , 3 bathrooms and was fully furnished . There was a pool and a white picket fence around the yard . They both loved it .

Nick was the first to talk to the realtor . " Well , it's a nice place , but how much is it ? "

" The owner is in a hurry to leave , military family . They have to sell it now and are willing to take less . They lowered the price to 380,750 dollars . "

Nick looked at Sara who nodded . " Ok , I think that we can do it , you're going to have to give us a little time to look around and make sure it's what we want first though . "

" Of Course ,I'll just wait here and draw up a few papers while you show yourselves around . " She smiled at them pleasantly .

" Alright . " Sara grabbed Nick's hand and walked upstairs . " We can do the 576 dollars monthly right ? I mean , we have some money saved . I really like this place . "

" Sara , I have something to tell you . " He took a deep breath , it was now or never . Why not when they were talking about money to start with .

His expression got serious and Sara saw his entire demeanor change . " Sure baby . What's wrong ? "

" This is going to be hard for me , so don't interrupt until the end . " She nodded and he took a deep breath . " Well , my grandpa owned an international supply company in Texas . When he died , he left everything to me . It's a multi-million dollar company . I'm not sure why he left it to me , but I am the youngest , and I spent the most time with him . He always used to babysit me when I was really young . " He smiled and Sara burst out laughing .

" Oh my god . I thought you were like breaking up with me . " She wiped a tear out of her eye . " That was good . "

" Sara , I would never break up with you. I love you with all of my heart, but baby , I'm not kidding . " His tone was solemn and his face serious.

" Nicholas Michael Stokes ! It was funny once because you had me going . it's not funny ." She said in an angry tone.

He sighed and pulled out his phone . He punched in a number and put it on speaker .

"Stokes Farming , Management . " An official voice said.

" Hey Brian . Update me ? " Nick said with total confidence.

" Well , we just closed that deal with Turkey . He caved and signed after the entire country was in front of his home yesterday afternoon . The lack of crops there is amazing. Now , other than that , I think there are about 300 new messages waiting for you on your desk. "

Nick sighed . " From who ? "

" Well , 13 new countries would like a conference with you , and 147 of them are status updates on different countries progress with the new land and farm supplies . About 100 of them are Bush officials . Then some miscellaneous ones that we weren't sure what to do with , so I'm just going to let you deal with them the next time you come in .. "

" Send a representative to the prospective countries , have the business department check out the sales records , and have the secretary's office plan a meeting with Bush so he'll get off my back . If he agrees to be civil and discuss things properly, have Jill set up a meeting and forward me the time and date . And, I told the publicity department that it wasn't a good idea to put my face on those billboards . You get obsessed woman who stalk you when you do that." He sighed and looked over at Sara, giving her a reassuring smile. "Have you been sending the flowers to the children's hospitals like I asked ? "

" I'll have representatives there ASAP , I just sent a memo down to Jill . And yes , all 28 bouquets from Maria are now in Dallas Children's Hospital , mostly the leukemia wing. "

" Good . Send Maria a thank you note as always. I'm glad somebody is getting some use out of those flowers. "

" Yes sir . How's Vegas ? " Brian asked sociably.

" Fine , got a lovely fiancé , and I'm getting married , and getting ready to sign on a house down here." He reached over and squeezed Sara's hand.

" Congratulations , I guess this means that you're not going to move back down here any time soon ?" He asked, a hint of hope in his voice.

" No Brian." Nick told him in a definite tone.

" I was told by your mother to ask you every time you called . " Brian laughed.

" Well thank you . But you have really got to stop talking to my mother man . " Nick said jokingly.

" Ok. Goodbye Mr. Stokes . "

" Goodbye Brian . "

Nick flipped his phone shut and slid down against the wall next to where Sara had slumped down . He looked at her and tried to gauge her reaction , her mouth was open and she was just staring at him in disbelief .

"Nick … Why didn't you tell me ?"

" As much as I know you would never use me , in Texas the only reason I was ever a ladies' man was because I had money to buy them whatever they wanted . That's the main reason I moved here, I wanted a fresh start where no one knows me as Mr. Stokes of Stokes Farming . "

" Oh . " She looked down for a second and realized it was a good reason . " But what if you choose to spoil them ? " She smirked at him .

" Well , if you want to be soiled , I will spoil you to no end . We can have this house tomorrow if you'd like . You can have different car for every day . You will never have to wear the same outfit twice . "

" Nicky , I was kidding . You don't have to spoil me just because you can . Now , bringing me nice surprises isn't out of the question . " She smiled at him, silently reassuring him that she liked him just the way he was, money or not.

" Ok . Nothing too big . Got it . Now , do you want the house ? " Nick asked.

She nodded . " I would love to buy a house with you Nicky. Now , one question . " He smiled and motioned for her to continue. "If you can afford to buy a house like this in cash , why are you still working ?"

" I didn't actually inherit the business until last year , and by then , work was the only time I ever really saw you . It was always easy to just ask you out to breakfast after a hard shift , and then , once we got together, it was nice to see you all the time . "

" So you only stayed here because of me ? " She asked shyly.

" Yeah . But I stayed because I wanted to stay . You were a big part , but my friends are here . My fiancé is here . " He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss .

" Ok , but if you ever want to move back to Texas , you have just got to tell me . I don't want to be a reason you're unhappy , and I have nothing tying me down here . "

" You could never make me unhappy . In fact you're the only reason I am happy every day . "

" Thank you . " She kissed him again and leaned into him , resting her head on his shoulder.

" Any more questions before I go tell the realtor we are going to buy the house ? " Nick asked, offering to answer anything she could ask him.

" Just one .. where do you have vacation homes ? "


	4. Teasing and a Talk with the Boss

Sara and Nick decided to ask Grissom for the two weeks off tonight at work . They had to get an extra two weeks for themselves , the time Sara had off was perfect for her to plan everything and arrange some details with Nick's mom , but there were still things to be set up that had to been done in person, in Texas. Plus they had to ask Grissom for a week for everyone else on the team . There was a chance he wouldn't want to ask for the time off from Ecklie, but if they brought up dayshifts last week off , he might have to cave. If not , they were going to have to talk to the sheriff .

As they were getting ready to go out to dinner before work , Sara had finished putting on her jewelry and went to take off her engagement ring but Nick grabbed her hand .

" Hey , it's not a secret anymore . You can act like a girl now. Go ahead and start wiggling your fingers to see it sparkle in the light . "

Sara stepped very close to him , she was less than an inch away from his face and whispered , " Like I'm not girl enough for you . "

Then she kissed him once , for just long enough to leave him breathless and wanting more . After he recovered and looked up , she was gone , keys and purse in hand standing in front of the new car. Nick smiled and laughed . He walked back up to their bedroom to put his shoes on and grab his jacket. Sara, on the other hand , had forgotten that she couldn't drive for 3 more days . It had been killing her, not being able to use her right hand. The pink and green from her cast were slightly faded , and the signatures in black sharpie stood out .

She thought about their honeymoon and how everything was planned out , and how she was getting married in less than a month . It scared her but she was more excited than anything . Sara Stokes . She heard footsteps and looked up . Nick was walking towards her with a big smile on his face . She tried to look angry but his smile was contagious and she ended up with a huge smile too .

" Don't push your luck Mr. Stokes . It took you long enough to get out here . Here! " . She threw the keys at him and laughed when they hit him in the chest.

" The soon to be Mrs. Stokes shouldn't push her luck either . " He teased.

She stuck her tongue out at him." Just get in the car . "

She went to open the door but found it looked . She looked at him . "Open the door . "

" I can't . " Nick said seriously.

" Why not ? We are going to miss our dinner reservations . "

" I can't find the keys . "

Sara groaned and rolled her eyes, only Nick could lose a set of keys after having them less than a minute. " Nick I just threw them at you , it's not my fault you didn't catch them . Check the ground . "

" You threw them , come help me look . " He protested.

She sighed and walked over to where he was standing and crouched down next to him . " They're right here . "

Sara bent down to pick them up and Nick grabbed her from behind . He pulled her up and wrapped his arms around her . He gently kissed her and moved his way from his mouth down to her neck . Her arms went around his neck and his arms got tangled up in her hair . He kissed his way back up to her mouth and then pulled back .

" We're going to be late . " He said making no attempt to move from their embrace .

" We should stop . " She said with no conviction.

" We should . " Nick said as he pulled her towards the house , keys still in her hand , and the car never even unlocked .

They had barely gotten inside before his hands were at the buttons of her shirt . Things happened quickly and protection was forgotten . And their reservations quickly came and went . Nick made them spaghetti and meatballs . They sat at the table and ate dinner bathed with candlelight . Sara had taken every candle that she could find around the house and placed them all around the kitchen . It smelled like a florist , mixed with a bakery , mixed with a fruit stand , mixed with a beach . The different scented candles created a unique aroma , but not too unpleasant.

After dinner they went back to bed to sleep before work . A couple of hours later the phone rang , waking Sara from her deep slumber .She untangled herself from Nick's embrace and managed to grab the phone on its 4th ring.

" Hello ? " Her voice was still scratchy and her greeting was interrupted with a yawn.

" Sara , it's Grissom , where are you and Nick ? Shift started 15 minutes ago . "

She yawned again . Then realized that if they were late for work , why hadn't their alarm went off ? She quickly looked towards her clock . It said 4:15 .

" Gris , my clock says it's 4:15 . Are you sure that it's time for work ? I'd really like a couple extra hours of sleep . " She joked tiredly.

" I'm positive . The entire team is sitting in the break room waiting for you two to show up . Did you reset your clocks after the power outage last night ? "

" There was a power outage ? " She questioned him, trying to think back to last night.

" I heard there was a small one up in your neighborhood last night at about 8 . "

She realized that was during their candlelight dinner . They wouldn't have noticed even if it did go out.

" Umm , Hold on a second . "

Maybe Nick had noticed while he was cooking or something . She leaned over and yelled in Nick's ear. " NICK ! WAKE UP ! " He almost rolled completely out of the bed as he shot bolt upright . " Did we have a power outage at like 8 last night ? "

" We were a little busy . I wasn't exactly checking to make sure the clocks were right . " Nick joked and she blushed a faint pink.

" Ok . " She turned her attention back to the phone motioning for Nick to go get in the shower while she got ready . " Gris ? Yeah , we were asleep . "

" Asleep ? That's what they're calling it now ? " She heard people laughing , he must have been in the break room . " Well , I suggest that you fix your clock and get here within 30 minutes . "

" You suggest ? Or we have to ? " She asked.

" You have to . "

" Damn . Ok . We'll be there in 30 . " She smiled and looked over at Nick who was chuckling.

" See you soon . "

" Bye . " She groaned and flopped back on the bed, closing her eyes for just a moment before hanging up the phone.

After another second, she got up and walked into the closet to throw on some outfit she had picked out for when she was running late . She grabbed a brown t-shirt , a pair of jeans and was tying her tennis shoes as Nick came out of the bathroom .

" We were busy ? I was on the phone with GRISSOM Nicholas ! " She scolded him gently.

He smiled sheepishly . " Sorry , but we were . "

" I know . " She sighed . " Get dressed . We're leaving in 5 minutes . I'll have something for you to eat when you're done . " She turned and walked out of the room and Nick called after her .

" Love you . "

She poked her head back in the door . " Love you too . "

Nick was downstairs in 2 minutes , wearing a pair of jeans and a blue and green striped polo . His hair still wet and he was putting on his watch as he ran down the stairs . They each grabbed a pack of pop tarts and got to the break room with 6 minutes out of their 30 left . Everybody was still in there .

" Sorry . " She was out of breath . " Why is everybody still in here ? "

" Oh , there aren't any cases . So we're just hanging out in here . " Catherine had a smug look on her face and Sara just wanted to smack it off of her .

" I didn't get to shower this morning because you called me in WHEN THERE WASN'T ANY CASES ? "

" Yeah , well , cases or not , you two were both on the schedule and you have to be here . " Grissom said smartly, in a mocking tone of voice that made Sara want to walk up to him and just smack him across the face.

She glared at Grissom and groaned . " I am officially hating you . " She flopped down on the couch next to Nick and sighed . " You know , since we are two people , shouldn't we each get a half hour ? I mean , if Greg and Warrick are both late , don't they each get a half hour to be here ? "

" Yes , but they aren't living together , so it wouldn't be an hour before they both got here , it would be 30 minutes . "

" Right . " She leaned back in the couch and silently took the coffee Nick was offering . A few minutes of silence passed as Nick and Sara drank their coffee . It took Sara about 10 minutes to wake up fully then she sat up . " Gris , can Nick and I talk to you ?"

" Sure , let's go to my office . "

All three of them walked in silence to his office and when they got there Nick and Sara sat in two hard backed chairs in front of Grissom's desk . It reminded Nick of being in the principal's office .

" Well ? " Grissom looked at them expectantly .

Sara looked at Nick and he nodded . " Ok , so , Nick and I are engaged . We are getting married in 2 weeks . We both need 2 weeks off in a week . Everyone else is going to need a week off in two weeks. "

" And how do you think I'm going to make that happen ? " Grissom asked incredulously.

" Get dayshift to cover . We covered their entire team for that two week conference in Idaho or wherever the hell they went. They can cover us for a week . I need Catherine to be my maid of honor."

" And , I need Warrick to be my best man . "

" Well , I think I can arrange that . If Ecklie doesn't agree I think I can get the sheriff to approve it . Sara , you do realize that you're going to need a new id , an entire new set of records , and we're going to have to redo you're entire profile in AFIS . "

" Well , I'm sorry but that all sounds like it's going to be your job . I'll fill out my records with new information , but I'm not getting an entire new physical and mental health exam . That is still good . You can figure out how to make sure that transfer sticks . "

Back in the break room everyone thought that they knew what was going on . A quick engagement between Nick and Sara , she looked tired and she had really cut back on the coffee and .. she really hadn't been working that much anymore .

Nick , Sara and Grissom walked back into the break room to see everyone's face eager at what the announcement might be .

" Well , as you know , Nick and I are engaged . We're getting married in two weeks . We are leaving for Texas in a week , you guys are all leaving in two weeks . Bring enough clothes for a week and make sure that you have at least some formal wear . Greg , Warrick , Grissom , you are all going to need to buy or acquire tuxes somehow . Catherine , you are coming with me now so we can buy my dress, and we need to buy your dress too. I want you to be my maid of honor . We're going to have to get the guys ties in the same color . "

She perked up when she heard that they were going dress shopping . " Really ? "

" Yeah . " Sara smiled at her friend and waited for her response.

" And you don't have a dress yet ? " Catherine questioned.

Sara shook her head . " Then let's go . "

Catherine stood up and almost dragged Sara from the room . " Page us if you need us . We're going dress shopping . "

Before Grissom could reply they were gone and everybody was starring at Nick whose eyes were still halfway closed .

" Warrick ?" Nick looked over with a slight smile on his face.

" You want me to be your best Man ?" He asked , returning the smile.

" Would you ? " He asked.

" Yup . So why were you really late ? " Warrick said, placing his arms on his head and leaning back in his chair with a smirk.


	5. Hectic Weeks , and a Trip to Texas

The Crime Lab had gotten a huge case the day that Nick and Sara were scheduled to go to Texas. A quadruple homicide had completely blown away all their plans , and they had had to call the airline and try to get their tickets switched , and rearrange seating for the rest of the team . Then Nick's mom who had been expecting them for different things was put in charge of a lot more stuff then Nick and Sara wanted to dump on her , but of course she insisted that she didn't mind . So , needless to say , with the case and multiple conference calls to Texas about the menu , and what color dresses they had , and what flowers should be ordered , the week before their wedding was hectic .

Finally though they were on their way to Texas . Nick and Sara had convinced the airline that no matter what the cost was , all 7 of the Vegas team had to be on the same flight . It had ended up that they had to buy all new tickets , but by 1:00 in the morning , and being on the phone with management for 5 hours , Nick would have agreed to just about anything .

So , after 6 days straight of hard investigating , the team was situated on a plane currently flying over Arizona , and had a few hours left on the plane . Grissom had gotten them all the time off , though it had almost been denied. But like Nick had told him to do, he had used the fact that his team had worked 4 triple shifts to solve the case before they could leave , and the sheriff couldn't exactly deny the request, they had all earned the time off. So, he gave them a week, and Nick and Sara still got their two weeks for the wedding and the honeymoon.

In 4 rows of seats , Nick and Sara sat in the back , holding hands and quietly discussing some of the last few things they had to tell Nick's mom on arrival. Catherine and Grissom sat in front of them ,Gil doing a crossword and Catherine reading a new issue of Cosmo . Greg and Sophia were sleeping quite soundly , her head resting on his shoulder and his lying on top of hers . Then In the front was Warrick , he was sitting next to a very attractive brunette from Vegas and was trying to get her number.

Soon after taking off everyone had dozed off . As the intercom came on announcing that they were arriving in Texas , Nick gently shook Sara awake .

She looked up at him and gave him a sleepy smile . " We're here ? "

He nodded . " Welcome to Texas babe . "

On the drive to Nick's parent's property everyone " ohhed" and "ahhed " at all the things on the land that they owned . There were at least 8 houses spread out , 3 or 4 stables , seemingly endless fields of crops , each with another house on that land .

" Damn Dude . Did you really grow up here ? " Warrick asked, joking around.

" No , I grew up in the house , not the farmland . " Nick replied smartly.

Warrick shot him a look and then laughed. That had been a good answer. "So how much land do your parents actually own ? "

" Well it's something crazy like 203,000 acres. But then each of the farmers that work for us have an acre , all of my brothers and sisters , and their families live on my parents property . More than half of it is farmland . The stables take up a lot of room , and we have a really big riding arena around back , so when it's divided up it's not that much . "

Grissom looked at him . " Yeah Nick it is that much . Think about what you just said . It might not seem like a lot to you , but if you think about it , that's like the size of Las Vegas . "

Sara looked at Grissom and elbowed Nick in the side . " He's just being modest . He knows it's freaking gigantic . "

Everyone laughed . When Nick turned a corner everyone saw a huge house come into view .

" That's where I grew up . And well , I spent a whole lot of time in the stables too . " He added the last part in a joking tone.

Catherine laughed . " I bet . You know I grew up on a farm too ? But unlike somebody I dropped the country as soon as I turned 18 , then I hightailed it out of there . "

" Really ? I never knew that."

She nodded. "Yupp. I could even ride a horse."

Nick smiled at her in the rearview mirror and then turned his attention back to the road. He drove by the turn-off to his parent's house and Greg looked up.

"Hey! You missed the turn-off." Greg announced in a loud voice from the back of the van.

" No Greg. We're not staying there." He said in a tone he would use to talk to one of his nieces or nephews.

" Where are we staying then ? " He asked , obviously confused.

" That was my parents house, you'll see the inside at our wedding and the back-yard at our reception. We are staying at my house . "

Of all 7 of Nick's siblings , he actually owned the most land , he had inherited all of his grandfathers land , and he had his share of the family land from his parents . It had been his choice when he was younger to rent out his grandfather's house to a really nice family . Well , not really rent , they had been struggling and he knew them from church , so he let them live there as long as they kept the place running . It was actually a really good deal on his part , they made sure the grass was cut , and the house stayed clean and homey . He would never kick them out , and they were very grateful and didn't mind "working" for Nick .

As they pulled into Nick's driveway and parked , everyone gaped at it . It looked as big as the crime lab from the outside and they could only imagine what the inside looked like.

The guys were throwing the suitcases into a pile . Nick waved his hand towards the house . " There's enough room for everybody to have their own plus some , but if any of you guys want to share rooms, that's cool. Master bedroom is mine and Sara's , everything else is up for grabs . "

Greg yanked his suitcase from the pile and ran towards the house . Along the way he managed to grab a hold of Sophia and pull her with him . " Let's go ! Rooms are at stake here ! "

In the end Grissom and Catherine were in the room next to the master bedroom , Nick had assumed they would choose this one , it had a bigger bed than some of the other guest rooms , and the wall paper was a light blue and had different butterflies on it . Next to them was a bathroom , and beside that was Greg and Sophia , they had a cute teenager room . Sara had almost instantly assigned it as theirs when she saw the house over Christmas . They were rock posters on the wall , and a computer in the corner and as Nick was now sad to say, a stereo that had begun blaring as soon as they had settled down. On the left side of the hallway , Warrick was way down towards the end . It didn't scream Warrick like some of the other rooms really represented their occupants , but it was ok for him to stay in for a week . It was a greenish , and had a TV , and a place for him to plug in his laptop . He was set .

After a few minutes , thankfully everybody had settled into a room they wanted without much dispute and all of the luggage had been sorted out . Though , apparently Sara and Catherine had matching duffle bags . They had fought over it until Grissom had intelligently suggested that they open both bags to see what was in them .

Sara walked into their bedroom and flopped down on the bed . Nick came and sat down next to her .

" So do you remember the family from last time ? "

She slowly nodded her head . " I think I have all of your siblings down , and their spouses . But the kids just confuse me . They all look exactly the same . Especially when they're running . "

" It's fine , as long as you can remember my siblings , they will be nice enough to show you who is there's . You're not the first person to marry into the Stokes clan . We've had much worse cases . Dan stuttered and would get really sick every time we had a big family gathering . Then Kenny tried to write out nametags with all the kids names , and who they belonged to . The kids got smart , they all switched nametags . He still doesn't call some of them by their right names . "

" Oh .. right . So you're positive that they aren't going to hate me if I don't know their names ? " She asked in a worried tone, her mouth turned down in a frown.

" I promise they won't hate you . But just remember , 6 siblings means 6 spouses . If you can't remember a kid's name , just ask them or one of the adults standing around. There are 29 nieces and nephews . If you can't remember one of my siblings or their spouse's names , ask my mom . Wait no, actually talk to my mom about any questions you may have, she wouldn't lie to you. But some of my siblings might. Liz would probably tell you all the wrong names like the kids did to Kenny . She was mad at them for weeks after they did that . "

Sara sighed and fell back on the bed . " Right , so let's go over this just one more time . "

" Alright , my parents , Bill and Katharine have 7 kids, Two boys and five girls. You know my siblings so that's easy. Bill, Brooke, Haley and Leia, you know the twins , then there's Liz , Taylor and me. Bill married Kristen and they have 6 kids. Kelly, Michelle, Kyle, Chris, Brittney and Adam. Brooke married Danny, and they have 5 kids. Tracy, Mia, Katie, Cody and Olivia. Haley married John, they have 6 kids too. Tyler, Katie, Julia, Ali, Karen and Jessie. Leia and Connor have 4 kids. Caroline, Brian, Sandi and Luke. Then Lizzy and Brandon have the least kids out of everybody, just 3. Jordan , Matt and Amber . Taylor and Kenny are the most recent couple but they already have 4 kids, popped out 2 sets of twins, neither are identical though. Amanda and Denise are a set, and Shannon and Tristan are another. And that's it. "

The kids all have some kind of Nickname. If you hear their parents call them anything else , don't change what you call them, that'll just add to the confusion."

" What do you mean that's it ? Right, that's only 50 people I have to remember." She sighed and stood up . "Well , let's go see how badly I can butcher all of their names."

Nick laughed and stood up . " You won't . And if you do and they correct you , just laugh and try to remember them the next time . "

Sara looked at him warily . " Ok . "

They got into the car and drove over to the main house . Everyone else had hit their beds and were now asleep. Sara wished she could just sleep but no , she had to go meet everybody . At least she knew some of them this time . At Christmas last year she just kept away from names and if she really needed somebody she would call them you .

Sensing that she was nervous Nick reached across the center console and grabbed her hand . " It'll be ok. I promise . "

" I trust you. This had better not turn out badly." She warned him.

" Well , I didn't promise that . Something bad happens every year . At our last family gathering , three of the kids managed to fall out of the tree house , and the time before that , Brian , Matt and Cody took all of the little kids jack-o-lanterns and threw them off the roof . Oh and then … "

By the time he had listed the past 5 times they were pulling into another big driveway . Sara saw Taylor and Katharine standing in the garden with iced tea talking . She smiled, this might not be so bad after all . If nothing else, she would come out of it married to Nick.


	6. Family Tree

This is for the coming chapters where I will be mentioning some or all of these characters . I own all of them except Nick and Sara who of course , belong to CBS . If you ever want to borrow any of these characters just send me a message so I can see what you've done with them . I don't take kindly to stealing though , so please ask first . I'll gladly let you use them . So .. on with the family tree .

Bill + Katharine 

Bill - Kristen

Brooke - Danny

Haley - John

Leia - Connor

Liz - Brandon

Taylor - Kenny

Nick - Sara

Spouses and Kids 

Bill + Kristen - Kelly , Michelle , Kyle , Chris , Brittney , and Adam

Brooke + Danny - Tracey , ( Amelia ) Mia , (Katharine ) Katie , Cody , and Olivia

Haley + John - Tyler , ( Kathleen ) Katie , Julia , ( Allison ) Ali , Karen and ( Jessica ) Jessie

Leia + Connor - Caroline , Brian , (Sandra ) Sandi , and Luke

(Elizabeth) Liz + Brandon - Jordan , ( Matthew ) Matt , and Amber

Taylor + Kenny - Amanda , Denise , Shannon and Tristan

Nick + Sara -- ?

6 siblings . 28 Nieces and Nephews . 

Ages 

Bill Sr. - 74

Katharine - 72

Bill - 44

Kristen - 41

Brooke - 42

Danny - 40

Haley & Leia - 39

John - 37

Connor - 39

Liz - 38

Brandon - 42

Taylor - 37

Kenny - 37

Nick - 36

Sara - 36

Bill and Kristen's Kids 

Kelly - 19

Michelle - 17

Kyle - 15

Chris -12

Brittney - 10

Adam - 2

Brooke and Danny's Kids 

Tracey - 15

Mia - 13

Katie - 11

Cody - 6

Olivia - 8 months

Haley and John's Kids 

Tyler - 14

Katie - 12

Julia - 9

Ali - 8

Karen - 8

Jessie - 6

Leia and Connor's Kids 

Caroline - 16

Brian - 13

Sandi - 11

Luke - 6

Liz and Brandon's Kids 

Jordan - 11

Matt - 8

Amber - 6

Taylor and Kenny's Kids 

Amanda - 4

Denise - 4

Shannon - 1

Tristan - 1


	7. A Day at the Pool and Girl Talk

Following Katharine and Taylor around into the backyard towards the pool where everyone was hanging out , Sara was bombarded by hugs. She was surprised that she actually remember almost everybody's names . Well , the adults anyways , they were easy to tell apart . Except Haley and Leia , Sara could not figure out how everybody could tell them apart . Nick told her it was because their personalities were so different , but she didn't know them well enough , so she used her method . If they were both around she would say one name and see which one looked , then remember what color shirt that one had on .

Once the kids had came and been introduced by their parents and were deemed free to go , they all jumped back in the pool .

" Uncle Nick ! Come get in ! "

He stood up and walked over towards the pool pulling his shirt off , then he remembered Sara . He turned around and looked at her . He looked so much like a big kid himself she just had to laugh .

" Go ahead . "

" Thanks Babe . " He yelled as he cannonballed into the deep end .

Sara sighed and the other woman on lounge chairs just laughed .

Taylor looked over at her . " You might just want to get used to it . Nick is just a big kid himself . "

A smile crossed her face . " I know . So how are Michelle's chemistry lessons going ? "

Last time Sara had been over to visit she had accidently said something about a case at dinner and while everybody else was grossed out , Michelle had asked a million questions so Bill and Kristen had put her into chemistry lessons at the college .

Kristen looked surprised at first , like it was odd that Sara would remember , but then she smiled. "Really good , she has officially decided that she wants to be a CSI like Aunt Sara . "

Liz laughed . " You know , she even got Jordan into it . She decided that if he was going to play dumb video games about killing people , he could help her play CSI . "

"Play CSI ? " Sara sat up in her chair . " What did they do ? "

Liz sighed and Brooke burst out laughing . " HEY ! Brooke Amanda ! You didn't have to clean 4 chalk outlines and ketchup off of your driveway ! "

Sara tried to keep in her laughter . " Oh God . I'm so sorry . "

Liz shook her head . " Kids will be kids . Kenny thought it was hysterical, he let them get away with it. Besides , Kristen had to come help me clean it up. "

The ladies shared a laugh then somehow got onto the subject of embarrassing stories about Nick . Sara managed to hear about 4 new ones before Nick got back out of the pool and picked Sara up to throw her in the pool . All the kids laughed when he jumped in , Sara still squirming and trying to get out of his grip .

The boys were all playing football on one end of the pool and Nick was supervising that , while Sara got dragged off to the shallow end to hang out with the girls . It wasn't actually as bad as she thought it might be , they were aged from 11-17 and kept up good conversation . They had been talking for a while before Sara realized that there weren't any little kids in the pool .

"Where are all the little kids ? " she asked, looking around once again.

"Oh , they are watching a movie inside with grandpa . " Katie was 11 and very sarcastic , but intelligent .

"Thanks . " She offered a smile towards the young girl.

" So , Aunt Sara , when are you going to start having kids ? " Kelly was the oldest Stokes kid there and of course somebody had to ask, so it was delegated to her.

" We're not quite sure yet , but we both want them , so you'll have some more cousins soon enough ." She smiled at them . Being Aunt Sara was way different than being mommy .

That was good enough for some of the littler girls and they swam away to play some game they had invented the last summer they were here .

Kelly , Michelle and Caroline stayed to hang out with Sara though . She would be the youngest Aunt , and that made her cool to talk to . They had only known her for 6 months and yet most of the girls were comfortable talking to her about all kinds of stuff . Even some things that Sara really didn't want to talk about .

" Aunt Sara , how old were you the first time you had sex ? "

" Caroline, you're 16 , who are you going to have sex with ? " She asked with a stunned look on her face. She may not have been old enough when she first had sex, but she was certainly older than 16.

" Nobody right now." Sara shot her a look but she just shook her head. "Really ! I mean , me and Jeremy were making out Friday night and he tried to go farther than I wanted , so I told him it was too fast , and he stopped . I'm not sure when it would be ok though . "

Sara braced herself and decided that she would have to talk to her own daughters about this someday, she could use all the practice she could get .

" Well , it's a personal decision . You really have to weigh the pros and the cons . Whether the sex is going to be good enough to risk pregnancy . If he's going to dump you after the sex , I can't tell you when or who is going to be good enough for you to give yourself to . You have to make that choice . "

She saw Kelly and Michelle nodding , and Tracey who had swam up behind them was listening in too .

Caroline smiled and sighed . " Thank You so much . I really needed somebody to ask who wouldn't tell me not to have sex until I'm married . I needed actual advice . "

She hugged Sara and then jumped up to sit on the edge of the pool . Sara took a seat on one of the built in steps .

Kelly smiled at her . " You never answered the question Aunt Sara .. "

Sara's eyes widened , she had thought she had gracefully averted the subject . "Well … Oh look ! Nick , we have to go .. umm , look at flowers ! "

She jumped up and ran over to where her stuff was sitting on a chair . Nick passed the football to one of his nieces that had joined in , and lifted himself out of the pool and shook himself off . Sara laughed and threw a towel at him .

" Do we really have to go look at flowers ? "

" Nope , you were just an excuse to get out of that conversation . "

Nick raised his eyebrows . " And why did you have to escape that conversation ? "

All of Nick's sisters still sitting in chairs next to where Sara and Nick sat turned their heads to listen in . Sara decided not give away the girls secrets and dropped her voice to a faint whisper .

" Well … I've taken place as the cool aunt . They were asking me for advice . "

" And you had to get out of that conversation ? "

" Well , as in most conversations with teenage girls it turned to boys , and that lead to sex .. which got REALLY uncomfortable , and they all wanted to know when I lost my virginity , so .. flowers . "

" Yes, by all means … flowers. "

They both laughed and Sara picked up her stuff , waving bye to the girls and walking back towards the house .

Once they were safely away from anybody listening in, or so she thought , Sara sighed and said , " I hope our kids are like them . They are really good kids . "

Nick shook his head , getting Sara wet with droplets of water flying out of his hair . " They won't be . "

" Excuse me ? "

" They'll be better . They'll have our smarts , your beauty , my charm . "

" Best gene pool in the state . " Sara leaned in and kissed him . They were alone so they figure it would be ok . But just then 3 girls that looked about 11 ran up .

" Uncle Nicky ! You're kissing ! " They all giggled .

He leaned closer to Sara's ear and whispered . " You're never alone here . They send the children as spies . " Then back in his normal tone of voice he turned towards the girls . " Did you guys need something ? "

" Grandma says you two have to go see her before you run off. "

" Ok , well we're going to see her now , and remember you can't kiss anybody until you're 40 ! "

They were pushing each other and giggling . " Uncle Nickyyyyy ! "

Sara listened in and noted that she really hated how 12 year olds could take a one-syllable word and turn it into 8 .

Another one of the girls looked at Sara . " Aunt Sara , can't you make him stop ? "

" Nick , we don't tease the girls . They can kiss at 30 . " She held back a laugh .

" Ughh ! Aunt Sara ! You're just as bad ! " They ran back through the living room door and Katharine walked in .

" Caught by the kids . Tsk , Tsk . "

Nick blushed even though his mom was just teasing ." Sorry . "

" Don't be , but I need to talk to Nick for a few minutes , Sorry . It won't take long though . "

Sara immediately shook her head . " Oh , it's no big deal . We don't have any plans set until tomorrow. Take as long as you need . "

Katharine pulled her son off the couch and he shot Sara a glare as they exited the room .

Almost as soon as they were gone Michelle , Kelly , and Caroline walked back in . Dry and Dressed .

Sara groaned silently . She forced a smile on to her face. " Hey girls ! "

" Don't worry we're done with the sex talk . We just wanted to see what you still needed done for the wedding . "

Sara let out a breathe . " Thank God . Sit down . "

She told them almost all of her wedding plans before Nick got back with his mom . The expression on his face was priceless . He looked like a little boy that had just been scolded by his mother , which in reality , he probably had.

Once again Sara said goodbye to the girls , this time giving them all a hug and telling Caroline if she ever needed any advice to call her . She blushed , but nodded and took the piece of paper with her number on it .

" That goes for all of you . Anything at all , even if it's like what we talked about today . "

Kelly laughed . " You mean sex ? "

" It's just hard to imagine you guys having sex issues, but yeah . Even that. "

She smiled and pulled Nick out with her before he could comment on his nieces choice of conversation. She knew he would take over as protective uncle and try to tell them not to have sex , which truthfully , Sara knew didn't make them want to have sex any less ..

In the car Nick looked at her . " So , now you're giving sex advice to my nieces ? "

He didn't seem mad , Sara could tell he was just teasing . But she wanted to give him an answer .

" Well , If they have questions , and I know they won't ask their moms , it's better that they have somebody to talk to . "

Nick looked weary but nodded. " I guess . "


	8. Texas Style Wedding

Sara woke up this morning alone . It confused her for a second until she saw the note on Nick's side of the bed .

" **_My dear Sara , _**

**_I promise I have not run away from our marriage , I am in fact getting ready for it . But according to tradition I cannot see you until you start that walk down the aisle . I know I'll be stunned .I always am when I see you . Today you're just going to shine . Don't let anyone smear too much of that make-up goop on your face, you look too good without it . I guess it kinda sucks that we choose 3:00 but well , I guess I can wait to see you . Not too long though . And don't worry too much , everything is going to be perfect . Because you're going to be there , and I'm going to be there , and we're getting married today . Can you believe it ? _**

**_I LOVE YOU ! _**

**_Nick "_**

By the time she had finished reading it she had tears running down her face and a huge smile cutting right through them . She started to re-read the note and before she could finish Catherine and Sofia walked in .

" Hey , what's wrong ? You're not getting seconds thoughts are you ? "

Sara looked at them for a minute trying to figure out what they were talking about then she got it . She wiped away the tears and let her smile shine through . " Not at all , Nick just wrote me a really sweet note . "

" Okay . Well it's time to get you ready. It's your wedding day ! "

Sara smiled and it seemed like she almost had to whisper or it wouldn't happen . The dream would shatter and everything would fall back into reality . So she whispered . " I know . "

As Sara pulled herself out of bed and walked into the bathroom to see what she had to do with her hair she suddenly realized how quiet it was . Then it hit her , Nick's house was all women as of right now , and Nick and the guys were over at his parent's house to get ready .

A few of Nick's sisters , and Katharine came over to wish her good luck before the wedding . They had also brought her dress from its hiding place somewhere inside Katharine's house . Nick hadn't even tried to convince Sara to let him see it , because he knew that even if he managed to convince her , he would have to get through his mom. And THAT was not going to happen .

Katharine stayed over while Liz and Brooke left to go home and get ready . Since her house had been taken over by testosterone , she needed somewhere to get ready .

Sara walked into her bedroom carrying the dress with two hands and walking very slowly , because according to Nick she was accident prone , and she wasn't going to trip and fall , because with her luck , it would probably rip right down the middle .

She put on her dress and had somebody zip it up for her . She couldn't even remember who, her eyes had been glued to the mirror . She couldn't believe that it was actually her in the reflection .

" It looks even better on you now. " Catherine remarked . She was the only one who had seen it on her before . " And I promise , you're boobs are not going to fall out . "

Sara looked down , she waited a second then yanked up her dress and adjusted her strapless bra so that wouldn't fall down either . " If you say so . "

" I don't think Nick would mind the view anyway . " Sofia laughed .

Katharine looked at her . " Yes, but my husband is going to be up there too , and don't forget we're coming up on 50 years of marriage . "

" Then he should be faithful . " Catherine added and Katharine had to laugh .

"You know , sometimes I just wish I could be the mean mother in law who didn't have to do all this stuff." She had been on the ground trying to fix Sara's train so she wouldn't be stepping on it as she walked . In the end , it was pinned and quickly sewed so they wouldn't have any little accidents . Sara was even in white flip-flops so the heels wouldn't trip her up . Then it was taken off to make sure nothing got on it before the wedding , they still had 6 hours .

Catherine looked at Sara . " So which one first, make-up or hair ? "

" I don't want a lot of make-up and that I can do myself . So go ahead with the hair . "

She began brushing it and gently running her fingers through it . " You have really nice hair . What do you want me to do with it ? "

" Whatever you want , If I'm going to trust anybody with my hair it might as well be you . "

" Alright . "

She grabbed the hairbrush , a few clips and a ponytail off her vanity table . Some of her natural curls were swept into a high ponytail while a few tendrils framed her face . The white clips they'd bought with the dress pinned the remaining pieces to the ponytail . After 30 minutes of making sure everything was right , it was hair sprayed , and a veil was secured in place.

Catherine stood back and looked at her work , after one last quick inspection she deemed it worthy and stood Sara up to go see it . When she saw it her mouth fell open , the pieces of hair in the clips had been crisscrossed and somehow Cath had fixed the clips so they wouldn't fall out . She loved it .

" Wow . "

Katharine walked over and hugged her soon to be daughter-in-law . " Congratulations . You look beautiful . "

" Thanks . " That was what Sara had always imagined her mom would say , but Katharine was as close to a mom as she was going to get , and well Catherine was like a mom to her too .

In fact , she really had a whole family at work . Grissom the quirky dad who let the kids get away with just about anything , Catherine the mom that kept everything together , Warrick the older brother she never had , Sofia was a lot like a sister . And Brass , he was like the uncle that spoiled everybody . It was kind of upsetting that he couldn't be here today but he had sent his best and given his approval to Nick .

After a few hours of preparing it was finally time .

Sara had been ready and waiting for what seemed like forever when a tentative knock came . When Sara walked over to the door to open it , she saw it was Jessie, their flower girl , and Cody , their ring bearer. It was actually really hard to pick two , but when it came down to it , Nick and Sara wanted them to be about the same age , so they put all the kids from 4-8 in a basket and drawn names .

Cody looked bored , but he had obviously been told to stay with Jessie . He was wearing a miniature version of what Nick was , and Jessie had on a very small dress the same color as the bridesmaids dresses .

" Aunt Sara , Grandma says that you can put on your dress now , we are going to start in 30 minutes . " She told Sara her message like it was the most important thing in the world , and to a 6 year old , being trusted to deliver a message like that was a very important thing and Sara over exaggerated just a bit to make her feel important .

" Why thank you Jessie ! You did very good telling me all that. Now can I ask you to do something for me? "

She eagerly nodded and even Cody perked up at this .

" Ok , I need both of you to walk over to Grandma's house and give this to Uncle Nick ok ? " Sara handed the note to The little girl who straightened up and nodded her head solemnly .

" I will . I promise . "

" Thank You . "

As Sara got into her dress carefully to not mess up her hair , Nick was sitting in the living room of his parents house . Just waiting .

He wondered if Sara had read his note , he thought it sounded cheesy when he wrote it , but it was true so he left it . Hopefully Sara didn't think it was cheesy . His thought were interrupted when Jessie and Cody walked in . Cody jumped up on the couch next to Nick and Jessie handed him Sara's note .

Just then Katharine went to peek in on her son , he had been awfully quiet for a long time , but she saw him with Cody next to him and Jessie on his lap . She quickly pulled out her camera and snapped a picture before they could move . She would have that one printed . A professional photographer was coming to video the wedding , but she needed some pre-wedding shots so she had been taking various pictures all morning . She had gotten some really good ones for a wedding scrapbook , like when Sara had gotten stuck in her dress , when The delivery guys brought in the cake , the sort of things that Nick and Sara didn't get to see , being cooped up in the house all day , but would want to see later .

Unaware of his mothers presence he opened up the note from Sara and read it silently to himself . As he read through it just one more time , Sara was also reading hers . Tears were silently running down both of their faces and while they were nowhere near each other they both felt a strong connection at that point .

" **_My sweet , sweet Nicholas , _**

**_I am not going anywhere either , although I love the trust you think I have in you . Of course I know you didn't run off anywhere .I was a bit confused when I woke up this morning , but your note was sweet , I have read yours at least 3 times already and I plan on keeping it forever . By the time you get yours it will probably be almost time for you to take your place at the altar . I know I am putting on my dress .. again . I had to take it off to do my make-up and have my hair done , and it's a good thing I did too , because Catherine spilled almost a whole cup of coke on my favorite pair of shorts . I was mad , and sticky , so I had to shower AGAIN , and she had to redo my entire hairstyle , but everything worked out , and I didn't worry one bit . I thought of you , and they all just seemed to disappear . I am not sure how you can wait , because I know that I cannot . I will be seeing you soon and just wanted to give you this . Now we each have a note , they are going to be the first page in our wedding album . _**

**_I Love You , _**

**_Sara "_**

Jessie saw her uncle's tears and asked what was wrong but he just smiled .

" Nothing munchkin . It's time to go get married , are you ready ? "

" YAY ! Let's Go ! "

She grabbed Nick's hand and pulled him off towards the backyard .

He stood under the arch of flowers Sara had picked out , and couldn't help but think that in less than an hour he would be married to Sara . His dad stood up a few feet on the other side of the arch, and Warrick was next to him.

He took a deep breath and sighed , the guests were starting to show up , and he guessed that the wedding procession he had been in so many times was lining up on the side of the house .

Sara arrived in her dress with Catherine holding up her train just as Katharine was placing everybody in the right order . Greg and Sofia stood at the front . Followed by Bill and Kristen , and Danny and Brooke . Jessie was fidgeting but was all ready with her basket of petals , she would walk with Cody . And finally Sara and Grissom . She rested her hand on his elbow and squeezed slightly as she heard the music start .

Nick saw her and met her eyes . She smiled and tried to resist the tears but they came anyway . Nick wiped his own tears away but held her hand and stood there waiting for the ceremony to begin before his father actually started .

"Do you Sara, take Nicholas as your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do you part?"

She smiled and looked into his eyes . " I Do . "

""Do you Nicholas , take Sara as your lawfully wedded wife , to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do you part?"

" I Do . "

Warrick handed Nick his ring and Catherine handed Sara hers .

" Repeat after me . With this ring I thee wed . "

" With this ring , I thee wed ." He slipped the ring on Sara's finger , noticing for the first time she didn't have on her engagement ring .

" With this ring , I thee wed . " Sara put hers on Nick's hand and didn't let go .

" By the power vested in me by the State of Texas , I now pronounce you man and wife . You may kiss the bride . "

Nick wasted no time and pulled her into a passionate kiss .

" I now present to you for the very first time , Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Stokes . "

He held her hand and walked her down the aisle where they kissed again and waved before they walked to the ten that was set up front of the house to sit down and catch their breath from all the excitement of the wedding . They were seated at the head table when people started filling in the tables . On their right and left Catherine and Warrick sat down but not before giving Sara and Nick a hug .

Before the reception started , Sara walked over to the DJ booth and said something to him then walked back to her seat .

Nick looked at her and she just smiled . " What did you do ? "

" I told him that if her played the Macarena or the chicken dance he was not getting paid . "

" Aww , just take the fun out of getting everybody drunk . "

" Trust me , there will still be plenty of inebriated idiots . "

And there were , in fact , the wedding photographer even caught a few of them on video in between different wedding events . It was probably going to be quite an embarrassing wedding video for some people actually .

They had gotten Nick trying to get the garter off and failing miserably . It ended up with him pulling Sara out of the chair and them both laughing hysterically . And they'd gotten Sara throwing the bouquet and hitting someone in the head , then requesting a redo .

All in all , the day had been very good . Now , all they needed to set it off was that trip to Paris tomorrow .


	9. The Honeymoon

Sara and Nick were finally married, they sat on the plane waiting for it to take off. Nick was very excited and couldn't wait to get on their way, but Sara looked anxious and scared . She had a death grip on Nick's hand and was looking straight ahead .

He glanced over expecting to see a smile on her face, but instead she looked scared." What's wrong babe?"

" I don't like flying over water . "

He sighed . " You should have told me , we could have driven somewhere and had fun . "

" No. No. I wanted this , and it will be over soon anyway . Just hold my hand . "

" Ok . " He smiled and gave her hand a little squeeze. She sighed and leaned against him. Just as she started to relax the plane began take-off jolting her forward just slightly in her seat . Once that stopped her leaned back and fell asleep. The first few hours she was fine until they hit turbulence , she looked quite sick , and as soon as the seat belt requirement had been lifted she jumped out of her seat and bolted towards the bathroom . Nick watched her go , but decided it would be a better idea to just wait until she was done and then see what he could do to make her feel better .

A few minutes passes and Sara returned to her seat . She had a weak smile on her face and once she had sat down she leaned back into his arms . She got sick twice more on the flight , and Nick insisted that she rest their first day in Paris .

They checked into the hotel and Nick made Sara lay down while he unpacked their suitcases . He had put away all of their clothes and he had done his toiletries , but he was trying to decide what to do with her stuff when she woke up. She had an extra bag full of stuff in their suitcase and he wasn't sure he should go through it without permission. He smiled at her , glad he didn't have to decide what to do with it .

" Where do you want these ? " He held up the bag .

" Put it in the bathroom ." She said, yawning in the middle.

" What is it ? " He asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"All the stuff that I know you didn't think about packing." She hot him a look and he smiled sheepishly. "My vitamins , make-up , our shampoo , soap , toothpaste, tampons .. "

" Alright ! Bathroom it is . "

Sara laughed at how he blushed when she said tampons. It was funny that he had 5 sisters and was still uncomfortable talking about stuff like that .

Nick walked out of the bathroom and laid down next to Sara on their bed . She was looking out the window and he followed her gaze . There was a distant view of the Eiffel Tower and a market place with a tea shop a cute bakery among other things . The street outside their hotel was paved with stones of all colors and shapes and there weren't many cars , just a lot of people walking and riding bikes . Sitting on their balcony was a rose trellis that rose up the side of the hotel and a white patio set .

Sara pulled Nick out and they sat down admiring the view for a while .

" It's really beautiful here . "

"Especially with you here . " He leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips. She made a face and he instantly pulled away. " What's wrong babe ? "

"I don't like you're cologne . " She said, her nose scrunched up and her head slightly tilted away.

"I'm not wearing any , it's called soap . " He said with an odd expression on his face.

"Oh . " She looked embarrassed and Nick easily changed the subject to a different topic .

"Ready to try for some dinner ? "

" Yeah . I'm actually really hungry ."

" Any idea where you want to go ? "

" Let's just walk around and see what draws us in . " A smile had overtaken her entire face and she seemed to glow with happiness.

Sara couldn't seem to wipe the smile off her face as she grabbed his hand and they walked down the street. They were walking down a stone street in Paris! You could see the Eiffel tower! It was so romantic here. She sighed and leaned into Nick a bit more. They browsed in different stores, but mostly Sara was content to just look in the windows. They walked past a baby store and Sara stopped.

"Let's go in. Please?" She gave him the puppy dog eyes and he let himself be pulled into the store .There were rows and rows of baby trinkets and necessities. One aisle was cribs and bassinets, another was strollers and carriages, and yet another was filled with tiny baby clothes. It was all so cute!

Sara walked through and browsed the racks of clothes. Every so often she would hold up a tiny outfit and giggle. It was hard to believe that it was for an actual baby, and not just a doll. Nick would smile from his position leaning up against a wall. Sara looked adorable as she browsed each row. Soon they would be doing this for real. She held up a frilly pink dress and Nick just shook his head. A little baseball outfit, a christening dress, he had to admit they were cute.

But Sara got bored of browsing through clothes and something caught her eye in the back of the store. A display was set up in the style of two nurseries. One for a girl and one for a boy. In the girls room was a delicate wooden crib that had been painted white that had a matching dresser and changing table. There was a pale pink bed set with butterflies and matching rug and lamp. A white rocking chair and ottoman sat next to a bassinet in a corner of the display box. A pink cushion sat on the chair and a matching one was tied with perfect pink bows on the ottoman. A lining to match the curtains was inside the bassinet. Sara saw each thing and loved it more than the last. She stood there just looking at it until Nick walked over and put his arms around her.

"You know, it might be a boy."

"But it could be a girl!"

"Or maybe it'll be twins!"

Sara suddenly burst out laughing. "I'm not even pregnant and we're standing in a baby store, arguing over whether our kid is going to be a boy or a girl!"

"Or twins!"

They walked over to look at the other display box, the one set up as a boy's nursery. It was an identical setup to the girl's nursery, but this crib was a deep mahogany, with everything to match. The linens and accessories for his room were sport themed. The lamp was in the shape of a baseball, the rug was a football, and the liner for the bassinet and the curtains were covered in all different sports equipment. Sara really liked this one too.

"I wouldn't mind twins." She murmured as she glanced around at the displays once more.

Nick laughed but while she wandered off to look a bit more he went and found the sales associate. A nice elderly woman named Karen seemed to be in charge of the place.

"Excuse me, my wife really likes those two displays, would it be possible to buy the exact items used in both of them?"

The look of total shock on her face made Nick chuckle , but she soon recovered her professional appearance . "I believe that would be possible. I'm just going to total up your order and check to make sure we have everything you need in the back room."

"Thank you." Nick walked over to his wife with a Cheshire cat grin on his face. Sara picked up on it right away.

"What did you do?" She crossed her arms and waited expectantly.

"I bought us those displays." He gestured with his hands to the nursery scenes she had been staring at for at least a half hour.

"You didn't!" She gasped.

"I did, you can go pick out some clothes and toys and stuff. If we're going to do this, let's do it right. We're going to need strollers, car seats, clothes and toys."

She smiled and added to the list. "Well then we're going to need a diaper bag, diapers, bottles, bibs, high chairs."

"We have to let the people at our baby shower get us something." He pointed out gently.

"What baby shower? We're not pregnant!" She started to protest, but Nick smiled at her and her heart melted. She rolled her eyes and gave in to that amazing smile. "Fine, we'll get the strollers, car seats, high chairs, the displays, some clothes and some toys. That's it."

"That's it? That's it" He walked closer and tickled her making her giggle. Then he kissed her on the lips.

"Yes, that's it. Now let's pick out the rest of the things for our little darlings." She rolled her eyes but grabbed his hand and started to walk with him.

They walked around the store and picked out all kinds of baby stuff. They ended up buying more than just the essentials, but according to Sara, they would need it all for when she got pregnant. The sales assistant walked over with an accomplished look on her face almost 2 hours after Nick had originally talked to her and then Nick showed her the rest of what they wanted to buy and her face fell.

"Yes sir. It will take about an hour to ring this entire order up. If you'd like you can go get some coffee and something to eat at the café over there, it's very nice. Come back here in a little while and we'll make arrangements for this to be paid for and shipped."

"Of course, take your time, we'll see you in an hour or so."

Nick shook the woman's hand and then reached over to Sara and rested his hand on her shoulder. He gently let it trail down her arm, finally letting it come to rest at her hand where he laced his fingers between hers and swung his hand back and forth. "Let's go."

Sara smiled at him and then glanced back at the woman frantically adding up prices on the calculator. She almost wanted to stop Nick and tell him it was too much, but he was her husband now, and it was all for the child they would have together someday.

She looked over at her husband and let out a deep breath. It was hard to believe how well everything had been going for them. It almost seemed too good to be true.

" Do you think this is some kind of sign ? "

" What do you mean ? " He looked over, confused.

" Going in there and just buying all of that stuff on a whim . It seems –" She stopped talking and clasped her hand over her mouth and ran back into the store .

Nick followed her in and she was already out of sight . He found Karen at the register , she had placed a closed sign on the door and was using all of her time to total their purchases .

" Where are your bathrooms ? My wife just ran through here … "

"Through there. She has morning sickness very bad. Ginger ale and crackers might help to calm her stomach. " He nodded and she pointed towards a sign and he didn't bother to correct her about the pregnancy , he just ran back to see Sara .

She was sitting on the floor next to the toilet . Nick walked over and sat behind her . She made to get up , but he kept her down . It proved to be a good idea when she started to throw up again . He held her hair and rubbed her back gently . When she had finished and washed her mouth out Nick looked at her and held her tight .

" I need to ask , when was your last period ? " He had been thinking about what Karen had said and now it was starting to all click into place in his mind.

" Last month , the 18th . "

" Okay , so are you late or anything ?"

" No . I'm not supposed to get my period until the 18th." She was getting annoyed at all of his questions. She had just thrown up what little she'd eaten today and he was asking her about her last period.

" If you don't get your period we have to take a pregnancy test , ok ? "

She finally made the connection . " Oh my God ." She slumped back onto the floor and he wrapped his arms around her and she tried to wrap her mind around what he had just suggested. "But I'm on birth control and we use condoms."

" Sara I know we're as safe as can be. But do you remember that time you ran out for a week ? We were supposed to be going out to dinner ... It was the night we were late for work because of a black-out. "

Her eyes widened at the possibility and she hung her head down. "What if I am ? " She whispered as tears fell down her face.

Nick wiped them away. "I'll be really excited , and happy for us . We're already prepared . "

"Really ?" She sniffled .

"Really. " He confirmed.

" Good , because I'm excited too . " A small smile started to appear across her face.

" Good . " He kissed her forehead and helped her up off the ground again . He opened the door and they walked out . Karen waved them over and they paid and set up the shipping .

" It will all arrive in Vegas on the 23rd , unless you would like to get express shipping ? "

Nick looked at Sara . " It's only the 16th , we're not going to be home until the 30th . "

" We'll get Catherine to hang around that day," She added mentally calculating. "I think she has off on Wednesdays . "

He smiled and nodded at her before turning back to speak to Karen. "The 23rd will be fine. Thanks. "

" No problem sir . "

Nick and Sara left the store and walked back the hotel . It's good they were spending two weeks here, because they had just spent almost 5 hours in a baby store. If the entire vacation continued like that, they would spend a good deal more money than they expected. But Nick didn't seem to mind, Sara mused.

Nick unlocked the door and moved to help Sara in, but when he turned around Sara was still standing in the hallway.

" Oh my God . " Her face had become clouded with shock. "Why didn't you tell me how bad of an idea it would be to send over 5000 dollars worth of baby stuff to our house, with Catherine there to accept it for us? Can you imagine all the rumors that will be started ? "

" Just ask her not to look . " Nick said simply, solving the problem in his eyes.

Sara quickly shot him down, knowing that if they told her not to look, she would be more tempted to check out what was in the giant boxes. " Like that will work . "

" Well , just think positively. They might not be rumors . "

She smiled. " I guess that's one way to think about it . " She leaned in and kissed him . He returned the kiss with equal passion and soon the honeymoon had officially started .


	10. A Long Phone Call Home

Nick and Sara waited a day , then two and when her period didn't come Sara wanted to run out and buy them a test but Nick stopped her .

" Let's wait until we get home . We should enjoy Paris while we're here . " He reinforced his statement with a hot passionate kiss that left Sara out of breath . She didn't want to pull away but she pushed off of him and laughed at the look on his face .

" We have to call Catherine before we get distracted again . "

" Yeah . " He nodded and picked up his cell phone, dialing it before handing it to Sara . She rolled her eyes and grabbed it .

After three rings she picked up . " Willows . "

"Hey Cat , it's Sara . "

"Hey Sar. How's Paris been? "

"It's been absolutely amazing . It's so beautiful here, and everything is old-fashioned and paved in stone and the streets are cobbled. " She gushed a little about how nice it was as Nick made faces at her.

"Oh , so you've actually seen some of the sights ? " Catherine seemed genuinely surprised and Sara had to laugh.

"Of course , we can see the Eiffel Tower from our bedroom window . "

"Sara ! " She said in a mock scolding tone.

"Just kidding. We have made it out of the hotel room. Actually we spent all day yesterday out shopping . "

"Buy anything fun ? " Catherine asked, curious about what they would buy in Paris that they couldn't buy here.

" Just some stuff . But we had to ship it home , and it's being delivered on the 23rd , do you think that you could stay over our house and sign for it when it gets there ? "

" Do I get to look in the boxes ? " She questioned .

" I'd rather you not . "

"Aww, that spoils all the fun." She could hear the smile in Catherine's voice. "What'd you do, buy crates of kinky sex toys?"

She heard a gasp in the background and then Catherine's laughter . " You're working with Greg aren't you ? "

"Yupp . " She managed to get out between the laughter .

" Well , tell him to close his mouth . "

She heard Catherine relay her message and she heard Greg start to protest . " Done . I'll do it by the way."

"Ok , feel free to watch some TV and raid the fridge . "

" Any idea what time ? " She didn't have anything planned that day, but maybe she could spend some time with Lindsey if it was during school hours.

"Nope , but please don't throw a party . You can bring Lindsey over and let her swim if you want, but no one else. We'd really like all that stuff to stay undamaged. It's probably worth more than you make in a month." Sara told her, almost wishing that she was joking .

"That's not true is it?" When Sara didn't say anything she took a deep breath . " Is it ? "

"Well, the bill came to about 6000 dollars, in American money . I'm not sure how many Francs that was … "

"Ha! I make that in a month if you count overtime ! "

"Ok Cat . Please Though ? "

" Yeah . Yeah . So I can't look through the stuff? "

" I'll show you when I get home." She tried to bargain with her. She really didn't want it all over the lab before they were even sure if it was true or not .

"Don't worry I won't look. As long as you promise to show me when you get back."

" Thank you ! Bye . "

"Bye."

Nick smiled and pulled her closer to him on the couch . She laid her head down on his shoulder and he wrapped his arms tight around her . " You handled that well . "

" I know." She smirked and turned in his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a light kiss, which turned into something a little more serious. Sara smiled against his lips. These next two weeks in Paris were going to be good.


	11. Taking the Test

Almost 2 weeks later Nick and Sara stepped off the plane hand in hand . They headed towards baggage claim and were surprised by the entire nightshift team and Brass , all there to greet them and welcome them home .

" Welcome Back ! " Everyone cried at once , and Sara laughed at her welcoming committee.

Catherine walked over and hugged Sara . She whispered in her ear " Baby Stuff ? "

A huge smile over took Sara's face and she nodded. Catherine's smile matched her own and she hugged her a bit tighter, careful not to squish her stomach.

" We think so . We haven't taken a test or anything yet."

She leaned in and whispered . " I'll be godmother ? "

"Sure . " Sara laughed and got 'Welcome Backs' and hugs from the rest of the team . It seemed that somebody, probably Catherine, had even convinced Grissom to come .

Brass offered to drive them home but Catherine declined for them. She was going to do it herself . Sara laughed as she was pulled towards the baggage claim much faster than anybody else was walking there. Grissom called to Catherine and she just smiled and waved back .

" I'll meet you at home ." She yelled across the airport.

Sara's mouth fell open and she looked from Catherine to where Grissom was standing then back to Catherine . "You and Gil ? Finally!"

" I know right ?" Catherine replied jokingly.

They both laughed and she helped Sara find her suitcase and then plopped it on the ground and waited for everybody else to walk over here. Nick grabbed his bag and the team gradually headed towards the door, each of them giving another hug to Nick and Sara as they piled into the two Tahoe's to head back to work . Thankfully Nick and Sara had off tonight . But , everybody was coming over later for a get-together . There was going to be a huge barbeque for Nick and Sara to catch up on everything.

Sara was too excited to sit still on the drive home . Today she was going to find out if she was pregnant or not, and now that she thought about it, she wanted a baby more than anything. Catherine stopped at a drug store and then went in with Sara to help her pick out two different tests while Nick waited anxiously in the car.

Back at their house , Sara took the tests and sat in the living room squeezing Nick's hand while Catherine told her about how she found out that she was pregnant with Lindsey . After a very long 3 minutes , she ran to the bathroom to look at the tests . One had come out positive and the other had come out negative .

" These things are supposed to tell you ! Not leave you hanging ! " She ran into the bedroom and slammed the door . It was obvious the she was upset and confused over the results .

Nick turned to Catherine . " Could you call everybody and tell them that tonight is just not a good time to have everybody over ? "

" Of Course . " She dug in her purse for a minute and then pulled out a card . She handed it to Nick . "This is the number for my OB/GYN , she is really good . You should call and get an appointment for Sara. It'll confirm or deny everything."

" Thanks Cath." He smiled at her before his eyes darted towards his bedroom door.

" No Problem . I hope she's ok." She said sincerely.

" She will be . " Nick said, reassuring himself as much as he was Catherine.

She quietly excused herself while Nick went into their bedroom to comfort Sara who had started crying . He wasn't quite sure how to make her feel better so her just pulled her into a big hug and gently rubbed her back until she had calmed down a bit . He made sure that she was soundly sleeping before slipping out and down to the kitchen . He made some dinner then packed it up in Glad containers for them to eat before work . He put those into the near-empty fridge and went to lay down with Sara . They slept for a few hours until Sara's nausea kicked back in and she jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom where she proceeded to throw up every bit of food she'd consumed in the past two days.

Nick held her hair and waited until she was sure she had finished then helped her back into bed and tucked her in . "I'm going to call an schedule an appointment with this doctor Catherine recommended. They just opened. "

She smiled weakly and nodded. "Okay. "

Nick rubbed her arm and gave her a quick kiss before walking out the door and closing the door behind him. He was gone about 3 minutes before he returned . "They had an opening today. Is 8:00 ok with you? "

She sat up and checked her watch. " Yeah . It's 7:00 now , I'm going to go shower then get ready . "

"I already made something to eat if you feel up to it ? "

"I am actually really hungry . " She smiled and gave him a hug . "Thanks . "

" Ok , I'll have it ready when you come down . "

On the drive to the doctor's office , Sara's attitude began to waver from excited to nervous . It sunk in that she might not be pregnant .

" Nick , what if we're not ? " She turned to look at him . Instantly he knew exactly what she was talking about .

" We can always try again . I wouldn't mind at all." He smiled and her and she smiled back . He wiped one of the tears that had escaped her eyes and then pushed some stray hair behind her ear. "Let's go see . "

They walked into the doctor's office and sat . Sara just kept getting more and more nervous while Nick just sat back looking calm and very relaxed . He actually got smacked for being too relaxed while Sara was so nervous . When the doctor called them back to a room they took a blood sample and the doctor asked her some general questions while they waited for the results . A young intern walked in with a clipboard and handed it to the doctor . She smiled at Sara then walked out .

" Well Sara, you're not pregnant . If you were trying to get pregnant remember that these things happen ."

"Ok. Thank You." Sara tried to smile but Nick saw the tears that she wouldn't let fall .

" If you suspect that you're pregnant again , please feel free to come in and have another test done . Other than that , if you can't get pregnant in 6 months , come back and see me .

Sara nodded and stood up . Nick thanked the doctor and followed her out . She got all the way to the car before the tears she had been holding in fell . Nick tried to comfort her but he sensed that she wanted to be left alone for a while to think so he drove them home in silence .

During that quiet car ride , Sara had realized that she really wanted a baby and so they began to try . They never used the thermometers , or the charts and pills . They just tried a little more often and without any birth control .

After a few months , with each of Sara's periods bringing disappointment and sadness to them , they went to get tested for infertility . Sara was fine, but it turned out that Nick wasn't. He cried when he realized that he was the reason that Sara hadn't been able to have a baby . After a few minutes of desperate sadness , he turned to the doctor who had tested him and wiped away all his tears .

" What can we do to make sure that we are going to have a baby ? "

"Well , it's not impossible for you to get pregnant naturally , but it is a low chance . In addition to that, you could try fertility drugs or in-vitro ."

" What would be the most affective ? "

" If we tried in-vitro , there is still a 78 percent chance of Sara being able to have a baby . "

Nick looked at Sara and she nodded. " We want to do that . "

"It's very expensive , but you do get your money back if it doesn't work . "

"How much is it doctor ? Cost isn't really an issue. "

" 25,000 dollars for 5 tries . "

Nick smiled at Sara . " Do you want the check now ? "

The doctor looked at him in surprise . "I'm going to give you some pamphlets about this , and you can read over them and see if it is something you would like to do . If it is , you can schedule your first try at the front desk ."

" Thank you doctor . " Sara took the pamphlets and handed half to Nick . They walked into the reception area and sat down .

Sara looked at Nick with desperate eyes . "We're going to do it right ? "

" It's all up to you babe , it's your body."

" Then yes ." She smiled at him. She knew how much they both wanted these babies, and she was willing to do just about anything to make it happen.

She stood up and he pulled her into a hug . They walked over to the front desk and Nick wrote out a check and scheduled a date that they both had off for Sara's first try at in-vitro .


	12. Sara's What ?

The first try had went really well and they only had another week until their follow-up appointment where they would see if it worked and Sara was finally pregnant, or if they would have to schedule a second try . The odds decreased of getting pregnant with the more tries you did, so they had been praying that one of the eggs would take, if not more than one.

Sara had been excited , then nervous , and now she was anxious . She had bought some pregnancy books and started reading them . The problem was she kept almost getting caught . Nobody knew that Nick and Sara had been trying fertility treatments to get pregnant .

Catherine had already figured it out though. Or so she thought. A mom could tell a pregnant woman from a crowd. She had seen Sara switch to decaf, if she drank coffee at all, she had cut out most of the caffeine in her diet, and she had seen her reading pregnancy books in the break room quite a few times. And Sara had that glow about her that just tipped it over the edge. Although, not even Catherine had any idea that she might be pregnant due to in-vitro fertilization .

The entire team sat in the break room waiting for assignments. Sara went to get two cups of coffee and after subtly checking, she knew it wasn't decaf . So, she filled one cup and then pretended to fill the other but left it empty. It was a slight act that kept too many people from being too suspicious of her. Of course, Catherine and Gil's news yesterday had left everybody suspicious of team secrets .

Yesterday afternoon the entire team had been sitting in the break room waiting for assignments when the two walked in hand and hand . Sara immediately noticed the ring and jumped up to give her a hug. Nobody else got it .

"Somehow I knew you'd be the first to notice . " Catherine said as she hugged Sara .

" Well of course, did you really think that any of the guys would notice a ring before me ? "

She laughed . " I guess not . "

"Let me see . " She picked up her friend's left hand and gasped . " That's a wedding ring and an engagement ring ."

A huge smile crossed her face and she leaned in a bit closer to Grissom . " Well , yeah it is . We eloped last night . "

The guys who had been watching football all turned towards them when they heard the word 'eloped' . Greg and Warrick were stunned , they hadn't even known that the two were dating . Let alone serious enough to be getting married. Now , they were constantly looking for any suspicious activity between team members , and that left Nick and Sara 1st in line with all the secrets they were keeping .

Now , waiting for assignments , Catherine sat next to Sara on the couch watching her 'drink' the coffee.

' If Sara really is pregnant , she shouldn't be drinking that coffee.' She thought . 'Well , one cup won't hurt , but if she drinks another , I'll have to talk to her . '

Grissom walked in and smiled at Catherine before handing out assignments .

" Nick and Warrick , DB in Henderson . Greg and Sofia , homicide at the Naughty Kitty , can you handle it Greg ? "

Sofia laughed and snuck a quick look at Greg before turning to Grissom . " I'll make sure he behaves , let's go . "

Sara nudged Catherine . " I think something's going on there . "

" Me too . "

Nick handed her his empty cup and then gave her a hug goodbye . Sara went to stand up and throw them away , but got really dizzy and sat back down on the couch- hard. Catherine had noticed and turned to look at her .

" Are you ok ? " Her motherly tone was apparent and you could see the worry on her face.

" Just got a little dizzy , I must be getting sick or something . " Sara lied .

Catherine played along since Grissom was still in the room . "There was something doing around, I heard it was pretty nasty. I hope you don't get too sick." She turned back towards her husband. "Gil , what about me and Sara ? "

"Well me, you and Sara are all on paperwork until a new case comes in . "

" Yay ! " Catherine groaned sarcastically . Sara smiled and nudged her .

" Behave." She said, mock-scolding her.

" I'll be in my office if you need me . " Grissom told them as he walked out the door .

After he had left , Catherine got up and walked over to turn on the TV . As she walked by Sara she saw her scrunch up her nose . As she leaned down, she smelled herself , it wasn't that she smelled back or anything. In fact, she had just gotten a new body wash that smelled like strawberries , her favorite scent .

" What ? " She turned to look at Sara .

" Nothing . " She turned away to try and keep the smell out of her nose . It was making her really sick to her stomach .

" What ? " Catherine sat down on the chair next to Sara and looked into her eyes .

" You're perfume is making me sick." She stood up and ran to the bathroom . Catherine rolled her eyes and got up to follow her . She wasn't even wearing perfume .

The door to the bathroom slammed shut as Sara ran in there . Catherine opened it behind her and then opened the door to the stall she was in . Sara was on the ground , puking her guts out . Catherine kneeled down behind her and held her hair until she sat back on her heels .

" Any better ? "

Sara nodded . " Yeah . It was just , I don't know . Your perfume was really strong and the strawberry smell was just making me sick . I feel better now though . "

Catherine smiled . Heightened sense of smell . She stood up and helped her off the ground then got her a cup of water to wash out her mouth . Then the two walked back to the break room . Sara flopped down on the couch and Catherine sat down next to her .

" So , Sara , how's married life treating you ? "

"Good . " She gave Catherine an odd look . They never talked about real girl stuff. It was much different talking to her co-worker than talking to her nieces in Texas.

"How's the sex life ? " Catherine asked, subtly getting at the pregnancy issue.

"Woah, getting into rather invasive questions here aren't we. " She blushed and tried to stay serious despite how much she wanted to laugh at how casually Catherine had brought up her sex life. "I'm going to have to say none of your business . "

" Ok , so it must be good , your blushing . "

Sara laughed and nodded . She did need somebody to talk to about girl stuff, why not Catherine? She was a good friend. "Yeah , it is . "

" So do you guys use protection ? "

Sara groaned . She might as well just tell her everything, she had probably already figured it out . She was a mom herself . "Nope . "

Catherine smirked . "Are you trying to get pregnant ? "

" What ? " Sara stalled for a bit of time to figure out how to tell Catherine everything that had happened in the last month .

" Sara , come on . I'm a mom . I've been through this myself . You are drinking decaf , you have a really strong sense of smell , throwing up at nothing – "

" It wasn't nothing ! It was your perfume." Sara got defensive .

" I'm not wearing perfume . It's called body wash." She said gently .

Another blush crept over Sara's cheeks . "Oh."

" Yeah . So are you already pregnant, is probably the question I should be asking . "

Sara smiled . " I hope so . "

" So you were trying ? "

" So hard . You really think I might be ? "Catherine nodded and Sara pulled her into a hug . " That means a lot . Thank you."

" Alright , I'm not quite following . You are really glad that you're pregnant ? You wanted a baby ? "

" Yeah . We umm , Nick and I, we found out he was infertile about a month and a half ago. It was devastating , we both really wanted a baby , so we tried in-vitro a couple weeks ago . I have been praying that it takes and I get pregnant . I think it did though . " Sara told her everything, from the beginning of this whole ordeal to the end. It was like a weight off her chest not having to keep such a big secret from one of her only girl-friends. As she talked, Catherine noticed that her whole face lit up with happiness and by the time she as finished her smiled had made Catherine smile too.

" Any reason why you think it took?" Catherine pried.

" Well , I'm late . Almost 5 days . But I don't want to jinx it, I haven't even told Nick yet. "

" Oh come on . " She stood up and pulled Sara with her . She walked them to Grissom's office and poked her head in . " We're going on a break , be back in 20 . Bye ! "

" Alright, Love you too .. " He said to the closed door .

They got into Catherine's Tahoe and drove to the CVS a couple blocks away . Sara sat nervously in the passenger seat and was reluctant to even get out of the car . At the pharmacy , Catherin had to ask the woman because Sara wouldn't .

" She needs two different brands of pregnancy tests , and a bottle of anti-nausea pills . "

The technician turned around and grabbed a bottle of the anti-nausea pills . "We have these here , and the tests are in aisle two. 8.26 is your total."

Sara pulled out her wallet and gave the woman the money as she took the bag. Catherine walked her over to aisle two and grabbed one that was in a green box, and a pink one that read 'first response'. They took those to be rung up and by then Sara was almost shaking with nerves. The cashier took her money and handed her the bag .

Back in the bathroom at the lab Sara put the two white sticks on top of the paper towel dispenser and slumped down against the wall . Catherine came and sat down next to her .

" Three minutes and you'll know." Catherine said comfortingly.

" What am I going to tell Nick if they come out negative ? He wanted kids so badly , and he already hates himself that he can't give them to me the normal way. You know, there's still a 78 percent chance that I could get pregnant? When the doctor told us that, Nick went from devastated to almost ecstatic that we still had a huge chance of having a baby together. He was so excited . What if it didn't work ? "

" Sara, he loves you. He will love you even if you're not pregnant. He might be upset for a while, but not with you. You'll just have to give him an extra big hug and try again."

" Thank You . " She leaned over to hug her friend and her phone went off . It was time .

" Ready to find out ? "

" More than ready . " She stood up and grabbed the two sticks off the dispenser . Catherine grabbed the box of the corner of the sink and handed it to her .


	13. Surprise !

" Positive ! Both Positive ! " Sara was in the bathroom of the lab jumping up and down while Catherine laughed .

" Sara , I hate to burst your bubble , but you should probably go to your doctors and get a blood test just in case . "

" Or we could do it here . " She suggested .

" Sara … "

" What ? It would take forever to get results at my doctors office and I could get them in like 5 minutes here . "

Catherine sighed . " Fine , but we have to do it fast . "

They walked to the DNA lab and filled Mia in . She congratulated Sara and said she'd be happy to do it . She took a bit of Sara's blood and ran it through a toxicology screen . Sara paced nervously as it ran through the computer . After a minute of her pacing , Catherine took her outside to calm her down before she made Mia nervous too .

" Nick will still love you even if you aren't Sara . You have to remember that . "

Nick walked up behind Sara wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her closer . " If you aren't what babe ? "

She decided to just tell him the truth . " I'm almost positive I'm pregnant . "

" Really ? " His whole face had lit up .

" Yeah . I took two of the home tests and they both came out positive . Catherine knows , but I mean she got it on her own and then helped me pick out the tests and …" She took a deep breath and realized that she was rambling . " I knew you'd be excited . "

" I am . " He pulled her closer up against his body and gave her a long kiss .

" I'll just take your evidence inside . " Catherine said , not wanting to intrude on their moment together.

" So , I got you something . " Sara looked at him funny and he smiled . She'd forgotten . " For our anniversary . "

" I'm so sorry Nick , it's just been crazy with everything . It doesn't even seem like it's been a year . "

He put his hand on her stomach . " This is enough . Just take good care of it for me . "

" Of course . " She put her hands over top of his on her stomach and it as almost as if they were already a family .

Nick reached into his pocket and grabbed a small square box . He pulled her over to a bench . " This is for you . "

It looked like the box her engagement ring had been in , but it was wrapped in pink wrapping paper with hearts on it , and a pink bow . She pulled the bow off and stuck it on the top of Nick's head then ripped off the paper and handed it to him . Inside of the box was a gold necklace with a heart pendant . It was absolutely gorgeous and Sara loved it .

" You will always have my heart Sara . "

" Awww . " She smiled and gave him a hug before she let out the giggles she had been restraining . " That was so corny . "

He sighed . " Yeah . "

" Ready to see our final results ? "

Nick raised his eyebrow in concentration to try and remember if he had been running any evidence when he left . He hadn't , and yesterdays case had been solved . She had him stumped .

" What results ? "

" Well , Mia is running a blood test on me . "

" Mia ? "

Sara smiled sheepishly . " She knows too . "

" So, I was the 4th to find out my wife might be pregnant ? Jeez . " He pretended to be upset until Sara grabbed his arm and started pulling him towards the building .

" Yes you were . Now let's go and you can be the first to congratulate me . "

" Alright . " He gave her a quick kiss on the lips and grabbed her hand .

They walked back into the building and after Nick checked in at the front desk and Catherine stopped them to tell Nick about his evidence , and wish Sara Good Luck , they finally got to the DNA lab . When they got there , Mia met them at the door, results in her hand .

" Hey , Sara . Can I talk to you for a minute ? "

" He knows . " Her and Nick shared a look and Mia smiled .

" Oh , ok . Well , surprise , you're pregnant ! "

Nick hugged Sara , very carefully to avoid squishing her stomach , and gave her a big kiss . He pulled away , then as a second thought bent down and gave her belly a kiss.

" Daddy loves you already . "

Sara smiled. "We love you too , but we're hungry . "

Mia laughed and waved goodbye walking back into the DNA lab to start some of the evidence Catherine had dropped off earlier for Nick .

They walked back towards the break room and the smiles on their faces could be seen from halfway down the hallway .

" Ok Sar , How about after shift we get something to eat , then in the morning we go visit that OB/GYN Catherine recommended ? "

" Sounds Good . I guess being around all those kids on Thanksgiving might be a good thing after all . I'm going to need all the practice I can get . "

" You'll be a great mom darlin , don't sweat it . "

" Thanks , you'll be a good dad too . "

They parted at the break room , Sara had to get back to some of the paperwork that she hadn't done any of . Hopefully Catherine was going to be doing hers now too . Nick kissed her goodbye and patted her stomach before walking off .

Sara managed to get almost 6 case reports finished before shift was over .As soon as the clock struck 6:00 , she was in the locker room getting all her stuff and waiting for Nick . He came in almost directly after she did and smiled at her .

" Lets go . "

They headed to the diner and got themselves a table . The waitress came over to take their orders and suddenly all Sara wanted to eat was strawberry waffles. Hopefully they wouldn't make her sick like Catherine's strawberry perfume had .

" Can I get strawberry waffles please ? " Nick looked at her for a minute . She hated strawberries .

" I'll have the All-Star Breakfast Special . Thanks . "

" No Problem Hun . "

Sara had caught Nick staring at her while she ordered and she knew why , but didn't know how to explain it . " Don't even say it . I know I don't like strawberries , but your kids must love them , or possibly hate them . They made me throw up earlier , but I really really want them now . "

Nick laughed . " The first of the cravings . "

" Don't blame the pregnancy . It's not the babies fault . " She said putting her hand on her stomach . She may have only know about it for a few hours , but she already loved them .

" I wasn't blaming the baby honey . " Nick tried to be extra nice so that she wouldn't get upset .

Sara laughed at how stupid he had just sounded . " I'm a grown adult Nicky , you don't have to talk to me like I'm two . "

Nick visibly relaxed . " I just didn't want you to go all crazy hormonal woman on me . "

" You think that I'm hormonal ? I'm carrying your child ! " She tried to fake tears , but it was too hard to not laugh at the stricken look on Nick's face as he tried to apologize . " Just kidding . You set yourself up for that one . But I'll try my best to be tolerable. "

Their food came and they ate in silence for a few minutes before she thought of something .

" Did you call the doctor ? "

" Yea , you have an appointment for 9:00 with the same doctor you had before ."

" Ok . " She ate another bite of her waffles , which were absolutely amazing , then another thought crossed her mind and she almost dropped her fork .

Nick saw Sara tense and put down his fork to hold her hand . " What's wrong ? "

" Didn't the doctor say there was a really large chance of getting multiples ? "

" Yeah , but we knew that already . Are you ok with that ? "

" I guess . I'd be ok with like 3 babies . What about you ? "

" Maybe 4 , at the most . But I'll love all of the babies that we have . "

" Thank you . " She squeezed his hand then picked up her fork and ate the last bite of her waffles ." Ready to go ? "

Nick shoved a piece of bacon in his mouth and nodded . They left the check on the table along with a nice tip and then walked out to the car . It was almost 7:00 now and the doctor's office might be 15 minutes away from their house , so Nick drove them home so Sara could at least take a little nap before she had to get up .

They had gotten all the way home and Sara had settled into bed before the nausea hit . She jumped out of bed and booked it to the bathroom . She threw up all of her waffles and sniffled sadly as she laid back into Nick's arms .

" So morning sickness . This kinda sucks . When is it going to go away ? " She moaned as she threw up again .

After she had finished Nick helped her up and put her back to bed so she could get some sleep before her doctor's appointment. He tucked her in and walked down to the room where all the baby stuff had been put when they shipped it over from Paris . He sat down and started putting some of it together very quietly .

After almost an hour , he had assembled both of the cribs , and one of the changing tables . They now stood in the middle of the room . Nick stood up and walked towards the door . He turned around to admire his work for just a second and he felt a pair of arms snake around his waist and a head some to rest on his shoulder . He turned around and pulled her into a hug .

" Ready to go see the doctor ? They can tell us how many we might end up with . 1 or 4 or 7 . " He laughed and Sara joined in .

" Can you imagine us trying to raise 7 babies ? "

" It'd be an experience . Now , we have to go . I'll put some more of this stuff together when we have a day off . "

Sara was suddenly very excited to know how many babies she had in her . Maybe more than one wouldn't be so bad after all ..


	14. Doctor's Visit

Sara and Nick sat in the waiting room for their doctor's appointment . They had managed to fill out the millions of forms that came with being a new patient and now it was just sitting around and waiting , which was not one of Sara's strong points . It was really only about 5 minutes before they were called back but it seemed like so much longer .

When they got to the examining room a nurse took Sara's weight and blood pressure and then told her to lie down . Doctor West came in after about 5 minutes and sat down on a stool towards the end of the bed Sara was laying on .

" Hello Mrs. Stokes, how are you doing today ? "

" You can call me Sara , and pretty good . I had some pretty bad morning sickness earlier , but it's gone now , thank God . " She laughed .

" Ok , Sara , I understand that this is your first monthly exam ? You had in-vitro fertilization to conceive correct ? "

" Yeah , we tried on our own , and when that didn't work , we went to see a specialist who told us that there was a very low chance we would ever get pregnant on our own . So we tried in-vitro and here we are . Finally having a baby . "

" Okay , and what makes you think that you're pregnant ? "

" Well , I took two home tests , and they both came out positive .The blood test came out positive too . And , as for symptoms , I'm almost a week late now , and I have the worst morning sickness . "

"I'm sorry , your chart doesn't say you had a blood test to confirm your pregnancy . "

" Oh , that's because I did it at work . "

The doctor looked shocked for a moment then composed herself . " Where do you work ? "

" Las Vegas Crime Lab , I had my friends Mandy in Toxicology run a panel on my blood . "

" Oh. "

" Yeah , she said my HCG levels were really high for how pregnant I am . "

" Alrighty , well we're going to take another blood test for our records , then we're going to need some information . I'll have the lab check your HCG levels too . "

" Sure. "

A nurse in pink and green scrubs came in and drew a vile of blood . Sara winced as she inserted the needle and squeezed Nick's hand as hard as she could . After the nurse had taken her blood to the lab , the doctor began asking her questions to fill out her chart .

" So , when was your last period ? "

" Let's see , I was a week late yesterday , and that would mean 5 weeks , so April 13th . "

" Ok , so you're not very far gone , you'll probably be due about January 17th . "

" A winter baby . Aww . Is there any way you could do a sonogram to see how many ? I mean , the doctor who did our in-vitro told us that there was a very high chance of multiples and we've been trying to figure out how many since we found out I was pregnant ."

" Well , we don't usually do sonograms this early , and you probably won't be able to see anything at 5 weeks , but we can certainly try . "

Sara smiled at her then looked at Nick whose smile was just as big as Sara's . " Thanks . "

" Before we set up a sonogram for you , any questions ? "

" Well , I've gained almost 15 pounds since my last doctor's appointment , and that was probably the time I got pregnant . I haven't been eating differently and I didn't stop exercising . "

" Women gain different amounts f weight during their pregnancies , but it's really odd that you would have gained that much in such a short period of time with no significant changes to your lifestyle . "

" Thanks I guess . So , could we get a couple copies of this sonogram picture ? "

" Of course . " She lifted up Sara's shirt . " This will be a little cold . "

Even after the warning , Sara winced as she squirted the gel onto her stomach . It was more than a little cold .

" Don't be surprised if we can't see anything , we might be able to see a little dot of your baby , but it's smaller than a pea right now ."

Nick looked at Sara amazed that their baby was so small .

The doctor moved the wand around her stomach for a few minutes and an odd look crossed her face and she moved the wand over her stomach again , going slower this time and her eyes widening as she went . Sara saw the shock on her face and knew something was wrong . She glanced at Nick and grabbed his hand as the doctor turned back to them .

" Well , we have some interesting news . "

" Good or Bad ? " Sara asked obviously worried .

" It depends . But , there is most definitely more than one baby in there. "

Sara smiled and Nick had the look of a proud father if she had ever seen one . " That's very good news . How many ? Can you tell ? "

" Hold on , this is Baby A , Baby B , Baby C , Baby D , Baby E , and .. this little blob here is Baby F . " The doctor told them as she moved the wand around and pointed out what looked like little blobs of white on a blurry television screen . " So , 6 . "

" Oh my God . " Sara was stunned . " 6 ? "

" Holy Shit ! " Nick was scared , and actually amazed at what he had helped create . "6 ? "

" Congratulations on your sextuplets . This is going to change the time of your delivery quite a bit , as you will probably only carry to about 30 weeks , well that is the ideal goal , if you manage 26 , there is a good chance that they will be able to live after a few months in the NICU . They will definitely be premature , and they will be very small , but we have one of the best NICU staffs in the entire country and they will all want to help with the first sextuplet delivery in Las Vegas . "

Sara took a deep breath , she could deal with the shock of that news later . Right now she had to make sure that all of her babies were ok . " Do they look healthy ?"

" Yes , as far as I can see they look just like normal , healthy 5 week old babies . "

" Thank God . Anything I need to know to get started on this adventure ? " She looked down at her stomach . It was so hard to believe that there were 6 babies in there .

" Well , with this many babies , the risk on your life as well as all of the babies lives is significantly increased and we should talk about reduction – "

" NO ! " Sara cried out . " NONE OF THEM ! "

" Ok , you need to calm down Mrs. Stokes, it was just something I had to tell you about . "

" If you think they have a lower chance of living , then you need to find the best doctors and the best plan for their well-being , no matter what it is . It doesn't matter if you have to fly them in from New Zeland or Korea , I don't care . But I want all of these babies delivered healthy , or as healthy as possible . They are all already my children and I love them . If it comes between me and them , I want you to save them . "

Nick looked at her . " Sara , no . "

" Nick , I pray it won't come to that , but these babies are so important to me . I would put them over me any day . If it does come to that , I want them to be able to live . "

Nick solemnly nodded . " Ok . "

The doctor smiled at Sara , she could already see how much she cared about these babies that were inside of her . " Well , just some advice to keep them as healthy as possible, You'll need to eat a lot , which sounds stupid , but given that each baby needs its own nutrition you are going to need to eat almost triple at your meals for now . I also am taking you off any strenuous work , and well , since you're entire job is strenuous – "

" Wait , I could do lab work , like paperwork and files and stuff . Not chemicals or anything , but if I can't work , I'd probably go crazy . "

Nick looked at her . " What about the whole listening to the doctor for the babies health thing ? "

A look of alarm crossed Sara's face . " I could have hurt them working ? I'll quit , I don't want anything –"

" Mrs. Stokes , Calm down , you have not hurt the babies ,and as long as you stay away from some of the labs chemicals and stick to paperwork , you should be fine . I'll take your word on that , I know you'd never do anything to harm those babies . "

She smiled , " Alright . Anything else ? "

" Well , I want you in here every two weeks until you hit 3 months , then every week , no exceptions . Talk to the receptionist to schedule your appointments . And other than that , are you ready for sextuplets ? "

" Hell no . " She laughed . " But , It's growing on me . I love them already . "

Doctor West smiled and stood up . " How many copies the sonogram picture would you like ? "

Nick looked at Sara , " Can we get 3 ? I'd like to send one to my parents , then one for each of us ? "

" Of course . "

Sara sat back down on the bed and closed her eyes . Six babies .

The doctor came in with three sets of 6 pictures . Nick took two and Sara took one , unfolding it to look at all of her babies at once . A few tears welled up in her eyes and Nick pulled her into a hug .

" We can do this . "

Sara nodded against his chest . " I know . "

Moving so just his arm was around Sara's shoulders he turned to look at the doctor . " Will it be ok for her to fly next week ? I'd like to take her to Texas , and I figure if we're going to do a baby shower or anything with my family we aren't going to be doing it any time near the delivery . "

" Next week will be fine , but this will probably be the only time that's safe for her to be doing any traveling , well long-distance traveling . I don't want her any father than the edge of Vegas any time after 15 weeks . "

" Ok . Will do . "

Sara looked up from her pictures and waved ,then quickly turned all of her attention back to it . Nick ushered her out the door and towards the waiting room . When there , a few of the women looked up and saw Sara holding 6 sonogram pictures and their mouths fell open . A nervous woman that looked about 32 put her hand on her stomach looking almost worried that she might have 6 too . Sara and Nick just smiled at them . Nothing could have fazed Sara's utter happiness and Nick was looking every bit the proud father of 6 .

One woman , she looked almost like she was going to pop in the waiting room stood up . After making sure that her two little ones on the floor were ok , she walked over to them right before they walked outside .

" Excuse me . "

Sara turned and looked , quickly folding up the picture and placing it in her purse . " Yes ? "

" Congratulations and Good luck . If you ever need any help , we have a really good mommy support group . " She handed her a business card for what looked like a mommy and me daycare center .

Sara laughed . " I'm pretty sure I'm going to need all the help I can get , Thank you . "

" No problem . "

Nick smiled at the woman then led Sara back out to their car . Before Sara got in she stood outside of the car , looking it over for a few moments before a worried look crossed her face. " 6 car seats are not going to fit in here ! "

The small Miata they had definitely wasn't going to fit 8 people. " Well , I guess we're going to need a new car , and well , a bigger house too . "

" And we just got done unpacking . " She sighed . " Well , nobody said sextuplets were going to be easy ."

Nick laughed . "That 's the spirit . "


	15. Dream House

After they had been in the car for almost 5 minutes an idea suddenly popped into Nick's head .

" You know , I actually got a paper from a realtor at the mall the other day. I thought it looked nice, so I checked it out on my way to a crime scene. It's very big, and it's got a good amount of property around it too. I think they have an open house tonight, if you'd like to check it out. "

Sara nodded . " And it's going to fit 6 kids comfortably? I don't want to have to move again when the kids start needing some privacy . And , it really should have at least 5 bathrooms if not more . That's going to be an issue as soon as we get them potty-trained ." She paused for a second then added a few more things as a second thought. "There has to be a backyard and a big basement too. An empty one with lots of room for them to run around and be crazy during the winter."

Nick listened as she added different requirements to the house , mentally checking off what he had read on the paper from the mall last weekend ."Well, the house I have in mind sounds good to me . And I think it fits all that , but you're going to have to see it yourself . "

Sara laughed , she doubted an house could have everything she would need for 6 kids . " Alright , let's go see this dream house . "

They pulled into a parking spot on the street and Sara's mouth fell open . The house was huge and absolutely gorgeous . There was a huge paved driveway ending in a 4 car garage , and a sidewalk leading up to the front porch . The entire yard was perfectly landscaped with flowers along the side of the house and a huge tree in the front yard . The backyard was fenced in so she couldn't see that but she imagined it was just as pretty as the front yard . Nick was already halfway up to the front door when he realized that Sara was still standing next to the car .

" Coming ? "

" Yeah." She ran to catch up with him and then grabbed his hand .

The front door was open and as soon as you walked in you saw a grand staircase and a chandelier the hung from the ceiling . The floor was wooden with a weaved rug in the middle . They met the realtor in the living room, completely furnished and complete with a bay window and a fireplace.

" Hi , I'm Tonya Lamartine . If you need anything , you can come find me . "

" Thank you . " They took a packet of papers listing the amenities of the house and started out on a self-guided tour of the house . They walked through the rest of the fully-furnished house , peeking in each of the bedrooms upstairs and spending extra time in the kitchen . It had the huge finished basement with a cement floor that Sara wanted, perfect for a playroom. Nothing to mess up down there . They managed to see most of the rooms and Sara lost count of all the gorgeous rooms. She noted that there were enough bathrooms for each kid to have their own , plus some .

She turned towards her husband and grabbed his hand. She gave him a quick kiss then rested her forehead against his. In a whisper she said, "Nick , I love it . "

"It's ours then . Let's go talk to the realtor . "

After some confusion, Nick and Sara managed to find their way back to the living room and the realtor.

"Excuse me , we really like this house and we'd like to make an offer." Nick told the woman.

The middle-aged woman turned away from the old man she was talking to and smiled at them ." The current listing price is 8,250,000 dollars – "

Nick cut her off and moved to pull out a pen from his jacket. "That's fine , when can we sign the paperwork ? "

The realtor's mouth fell open in shock before she had the chance to compose herself. She quickly closed it and walked back towards the older man seated by the fireplace. " Hold on just a moment . "

Mrs. Lamartine talked to the man for a minute before he stood up and walked over to Nick and Sara .

" Hello, I own this house. I'm Trenton Duvall, I hear you'd like to buy the house ?"

" Yes Sir . We'd like to sign a contract tonight if that is good for you . We need to move in as soon as possible . "

" Well , come into my office . " The old man escorted them to a room towards the back of the house which had previously been locked while the realtor let all of the other potential house buyers out , after letting them know they had found a buyer.

Once she had returned , they talked through the contract and Nick signed where it was needed. It took almost 2 hours to close the deal . The realtor wanted to start a mortgage agreement but Nick didn't want to be paying that monthly when he could just as easily take it out of his bank account and pay in cash . After some discussion, all four people took a little trip to the bank and spent another hour and a half there while the money was transferred from Nick's account to Mr. Duvall's . The accountant at the front desk had seemed quite surprised when Nick had requested an 8 million dollar transaction , but since Nick had much more than that in his account he soon complied and everything was settled financially after a long wait.

They returned to the house and took a seat in the living room. Sara couldn't believe that Nick had just bought her an 8 million dollar house because she said that she liked it, but Nick was perfectly calm throughout everything . The very last thing that had to be done was to get the keys to the house.

"The keys on the blue ring are for the pool house , the ones on the green ring are for the guest house, on the red key ring are two garage door openers , for lack of a better word , all they do is open the door from the outside. All of the rest are house keys , each house key unlocks both the front door and the back door." Mrs. Lamartine looked at Mr. Duvall and he nodded .

"Well ,that's it , I hope you two are very happy here . "

" Thank You very much . " Sara stood up and walked them to the door , waving to them until they had gotten in the car and then she shut the door and leaned up against it . Nick slid down next to her and put his arm around her shoulders.

" I can't believe that we just bought a house . " Sara couldn't even hide the happiness in her voice and Nick smiled and kissed her temple .

" Well , we did . Do you want to call my mom and tell her the good news ? We can tell everybody else at work tonight if you want . "

Sara looked at her watch and realized that they had spent almost 4 hours closing the deal on the house and 2 at the doctor's office earlier . They had about 8 hours until they had to be at work .

" After we call her can we take a long nap? I shouldn't be this tired after doing almost nothing today, but I am." She yawned unexpectedly and then smile sheepishly at Nick. "Sorry."

Nick laughed . " Don't forget that being pregnant makes you tired too . You can sleep as long as you want , I'll call out for you if I have too . "

" Nope , it's fine . I just need to get at least a few hours of sleep before we go in . Now let's call your mom. "

He pulled out his phone and dialed a number . It rang a few times and a familiar voice picked up on the other end .

" Hello ? " A soft female voice asked from the other end

" Hey Mom . " Nick smiled at his mom's voice and Sara couldn't help but smile too.

" Nicky ! How are you?"

" Good, Sara and I have some good news . "

" Nicky , am I getting another grandbaby ?" He rolled his eyes, of course his mom would guess before they were able to tell her.

Sara coughed and Nick handed her the phone . " Actually Katharine , you'll be getting 6 new grandbabies in about 25 weeks if everything goes perfectly . "

" Six babies ? "

" Yeah . Sextuplets . We're praying we can hit 30 weeks , the doctor says she's certain that they would all survive if I could get them that far , if not she said I have to get to at least 26 for all of them to have a pretty good chance . "

" Oh." You could hear the shock in her voice and Sara laughed and handed the phone back to Nick .

" Mom , we were going to come up next week if it's okay with you . Sara won't be able to be out of the county, let alone fly to another state in about a month , and it'd be really nice to see you since we won't be able to for 5 months . "

" That'd be great Nick . We'll have a big party for you two and the babies of course . "

" Thanks mom . You can tell everybody and have them call us later . "

" Ok Nicky , I love you . You too Sara . "

" Bye Mom. "

He hung up and saw Sara had tears in her eyes .

" What's wrong ? "

She hadn't even realized that she had been crying . But now that she thought about it , the tears came gushing out . Nick pulled her into a tight embrace and let her cry until she was done . He rubbed her back and whispered sweet nothings into her ear until her calm demeanor had returned and she was feeling better .

" Now , what was wrong darlin ? "

She sniffled and leaned back into his arms ." I don't know if I can do this Nick . What if they don't make it ? "

" Of course you can , and you will . We're in this together . "

She smiled and kissed him passionately on the lips . " We're going to get to 26 weeks . "

" I know we are babe . " He squeezed her hand . " Now , do you want to sleep here or head to the old house until we can get some of our stuff moved over here ? "

" Let's stay here . " She smiled . " And , maybe we can leave the furniture there ? Let's just bring our clothes and the new baby stuff . Oh my God . "

" What ? "

" We have baby stuff for 2 babies . We have 4 more nurseries , that won't have anything in them ! "

" Sara , we can order them once we know what we are having . Until then we can set up the two we have . Everything's going to work out . I promise . " He stood up and offered her his hand .

She grabbed onto it and stood up . " Thank you . "

" No Problem . Now let's go take that nap , and when we get up , you have to eat . "

Sara laughed . " Ok . But nothing with strawberries . "

" Deal . " Nick compromised and quickly thought up what he could make for the two of them, scratch that,


	16. Moving

After a few more minutes Sara had fallen asleep on Nick's shoulder and he lifted her up and carried her into their new bedroom . He made sure that she was tucked in then slipped in next to her , setting the alarm on his phone for 6:00 .

When Sara woke up the bed next to her was cold and her phone said 7:00 . They didn't have to be at work until 10:00 , and it seemed like Nick had been gone for a while . She worried for a second and was ready to jump out of bed but then she saw the note on the bedside table .

" _Sara , _

_I went to get our clothes and the baby furniture from our old house. Greg, Warrick and Grissom are gonna help me out. I'm going to try and keep them quiet , but you probably only have until 7:30 to sleep peacefully or until we get back and then all bets are off . I figure that maybe after we go to work, if you're not too tired we can do a little baby shopping ? I mean, we can't buy anything big , but we are going to need more car seats and highchairs , and I figure we can buy some more generic stuff. _

_Love You , _

_Nick " _

She smiled and re-read the note . Apparently she had another half hour to sleep , but she wasn't tired at all so she walked down to the kitchen to see if Nick had bought anything. She looked in the fridge and shook her head, guess not. She checked the cabinets and found some chips and crackers that she knew Nick had left in there for her. They had been in her kit, but I guess he had grabbed them. She took a small bag of chips and then tried to call Nick, but when he didn't answer she just left him a voicemail to buy some food or bring something for dinner .

She checked her phone again and ran up to the bathroom to get a quick shower before the guys showed up . As she was blow-drying her hair she heard the front door close and then the guys talking before she heard Nick tell them to be quiet and then all of the noise stopped . She turned off the blow-dryer and walked downstairs .

She walked as quietly as she could and walked up behind Nick and wrapped her arms around him .He turned around and gave her a quick kiss .

Sara looked at him questioningly . He shook his head . He hadn't told them about the babies .She nodded and made a mental note to not bring it up until she could tell the entire team together . Catherine at least would be mad if she didn't find out first-hand .

"So guys , do you like the new house ? "

Warrick turned around. "Hell yeah . Who knew Nick could afford all this ? "

Grissom walked back into the room with another box and set it in the growing pile in their foyer . "The house is very nice Sara."

" Thanks Gil ." She looked at Nick . " Is that it ? "

Grissom answered instead of Nick . " Yeah , that was the last box . I'm going to head out if you don't need anything else , me and Cath are taking Lindsey shopping for school clothes . Joy . " He sighed and Warrick laughed .

" You mind dropping me and Greg off at the lab ? We left our cars there . "

Grissom looked at them and nodded. " Sure."

Sara gave each one of them a hug and thanked them for helping out . " Bye . "

After they had all piled into Grissom's car , Sara sighed and walked back into the living room .

" Nick , I'm really hungry . " She complained. The chips had been good, but they must have went straight to the babies because they hadn't helped satisfy her hunger much.

He stood up and smiled at her . " What do you want to eat ? "

" Anything . I am like really hungry though . These kids are killing me in the food department . I ate a bag of chips like a half hour ago , and I'm hungry again ."

" That's because you didn't eat anything that is going to stop your hungry. The chips just.. put it on hold . Let's go get something to eat , then we need to buy some healthy snacks for you and the babies. "

" Thank you Dr. Stokes , let's go ! "

She pulled him out the door jokingly and he jogged to keep up with her .

" Fine , remind me not to get in the way of you and your food . " He smiled at her . " I might lose an arm."

She smacked him playfully and then kissed his cheek . " Only if you try and take my food away . "


	17. Telling the Team

Instead of trying to tell the entire team at work, Nick and Sara decided to invite everybody over and let it double as a housewarming party . Once everybody was seated in Nick and Sara's living room , Sara stood up and cleared her throat ,everyone turned to her and she smiled .

" Okay , so Nick and I have a really big announcement . "

Warrick laughed . " You're pregnant aren't you ? "

Sara smiled and crossed her arms . " Yes . But , that's not the surprise ."

Catherine looked at her . " When were you going to tell me you were pregnant? "

"You knew ! " Sara's mouth fell open , she had thought that maybe Catherine would be the only one on her side if everyone else freaked out . But it seemed to be flipped, everyone else was fine with it and she was upset .

" But , I'd have liked to have been told when you found out it was officially ." Catherine smiled and Sara rolled her eyes . Thank God she was just kidding , the stress of what everyone else might say was already killing her . She didn't need another friend mad at her .

" Let me finish , the big news has to do with me being pregnant, but that's not the only news. " Sara looked at Nick and grabbed his hand. " We're having sextuplets. "

Greg's mouth fell open. " That's six babies…"

" Way to go Greg ! " Nick said sarcastically . " It is in fact, six babies."

Warrick laughed and moved to congratulate him, and Catherine stood up and gave Sara a big hug . "That was some news girlie. We'll have to do some shopping for baby stuff soon . "

" Real soon. The doctor told me that I probably won't even be able to stand by 23 weeks , and I'll be seeing a whole lot of my bed from like week 20 on.

" Yeah – " Catherine started to say something but before she could finish a wave of nausea came over her and she ran towards the bathroom closest to the living room. Sara ,being the only one who had seen her run out like that followed her to the bathroom and held her hair back .

" So , something you want to tell me ? "

" I'm pregnant ? "

" I know . I just wanted to hear it from you . " She gave her a hug." We'll go shopping together . Does Grissom know? "

" Yeah , I went to my doctor's yesterday, and she confirmed it . I was thinking we'd be due about the same time , but with this –" She gestured towards her stomach. "Well they'll be here almost two months before this little one comes out."

Sara laughed then became serious at the thought of her babies being so premature. She had read up on it, and most woman were able to carry to 30 weeks even if they had multiples. And, her doctor said that she would have a really good chance of having all the babies survive if she made it to 30 , so that gave her some hope.

Catherine saw the worried look on her face and gave her another hug . " It'll be ok. "

" I know . " She opened the door and they walked back out into the hallway ."So what do you think is going on with Greg and Sofia ? "

" I don't know , but I think they're together . They have to be , do you see how close they're sitting ?"

Sara looked around her and peeked in through a crack in the doorway . " Oh wow . Let's go steal Sofia and see if we can get her to talk ! "

They ran into the living room and pulled Sofia up by her arms and then ran her out of the room . She obviously didn't like being hijacked , so she kicked her legs and yelled for the guys to stop them , but when that didn't work she just sighed and stood up . As she walked out the doorway she turned and glared at Greg .

Nick saw the look on Greg's face and just patted his arm . " It'll be fine . She won't stay mad . "

Warrick chuckled. "Or, she could quite possibly stay mad at you forever and never speak to you again."

Greg's eyes widened for a second then he shook his head and groaned as he watched the girls huddled in the hallway just outside of the living room. He looked towards Grissom and went to ask something , but Nick motioned for him to be quiet until the girls ran upstairs , then he told him to go .

" Do you ever wonder what they talk about ? "

Nick and Warrick seemed to shy away with scared expressions on their faces and Grissom just chuckled .

" You don't even want to know man , it would probably scare you for life . "

The guys stayed well away from the girls while they had their girl talk , actually they left to go play football with some other guys from the lab . Grissom wasn't going to go , but Nick convinced him with the threat of staying home with the girls … alone .

While they played football , Sara and Catherine got the details on Sofia and Greg's relationship .

" So , Sofia , how's everything with Greg going ? "

" Greg ? " She shifted on the bed and tucked her feet under herself .

" The guy you're crazy about . " Catherine stated .

Sofia laughed nervously and tried to decide whether it would be better to just tell them , or let them find out through the interrogation .

" You can tell us . It's not like the pregnancy hormones would make us totally crazy or anything . "

" Ok , fine . We've been going out a while now . It started out a little rough , but after a while we just fell into a good relationship . He told me how he really felt about me a couple weeks ago . It turns out we fell the same about each other . " She smiled and looked down at her shoes with a slight blush on her face .

Catherine smiled and gave her a hug . " Congratulations . I guess you're the last lady of CSI to fall in love."

" Hopefully not the next to get pregnant . I don't know how the sheriff would handle the 3 best CSI's being out for maternity leave at the same time . " Sara added with a laugh.

" Oh God . " Sofia wrinkled her nose and then laughed . " It's pretty funny that we all fell in love with coworkers ."

What she didn't tell them was that she had an appointment with her gynecologist tomorrow . She was already scared to death . Greg wasn't exactly the most responsible person , he was a great guy and everything , but she wasn't quite sure how he would react to a baby in the picture . Sofia knew he would never leave her with a baby , but she still had doubts about whether or not he was father material , or even husband material . At least Catherine and Sara had supportive husbands to father their babies . She wasn't even married to Greg .

She groaned and leaned back on the bed , forgetting that Sara and Catherine were still in the room . Sara coughed and looked at her funny . Sofia slowly sat up, her face red and clouded with embarrassed .

" Sorry , had a bit of a mental break-down . I've got a lot on my plate right now . "

" Don't think that you're going to get away with telling us that much and not finishing . " Sara sat up in her chair and leaned closer .

Sofia took a deep breath and slowly let it out . " I might be pregnant . "

Catherine gasped and Sara let it sink in a moment before getting up to hug her ." Congratulations . "

Immediately after Catherine's mind had stopped spinning , she took charge of the situation .

" Well , I guess it's time to take you on a CSI mommy-to-be pregnancy run . " She grabbed her purse from the bed next to her and got up . " Let's go get some home tests . They guys are gone for a while. They went to play football."


	18. We Need To Talk

While Sofia was home worrying about the baby, Greg was sitting on the sidelines of a football game thinking about the small box in his pocket . He had only been dating Sofia about 2 months , but he knew from the start that she was the one . After he had told her how he felt , and heard that she felt the same way , everything he had ever thought about love changed. He didn't know how to explain it even to himself, but he found himself thinking about marriage more and more . With Sofia and himself as the main characters .

He had bought the ring a few days ago , and was still thinking about the perfect time to propose to her . He wanted it to be special for her , and he definitely wanted her to say yes . Greg was so absorbed in his own little world that he didn't see the ball coming towards him . It landed in his lap so , without thinking he stood up and ran to the closet end zone .

"Touchdown ! " He threw the ball down and did some weird dance . Half of the guys groaned and the other half came over to congratulate him . He forgot about his worries for a few minutes and decided to get in the game .

The girls got back from the store and were on their way to the bathroom when Catherine suddenly stopped. "Does Greg know yet ? "

Sofia blushed and looked at the ground. It was embarrassing, but she didn't want to put a burden on him if she didn't have to . And hopefully, she didn't have to . "Not yet . I'm going to wait until I know it's positive . I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow , but if this comes out positive , I'll tell him today."

Sara looked at her for a second , then smiled . " It'll all get easier from here . Once you know , some of the nerves go away , and you can just get on with the pregnancy. "

Catherine looked at her, her face incredulous. " The nerves stop ? Don't lie to her." She turned towards Sofia . "They don't stop , they just change. And then you get to look forward to having a little baby."

Sofia nodded and took a few deep breathes before going into the bathroom , leaving Sara and Catherine in the hallway to wait .

She took both of them and set them down on the edge of the tub . She sunk down against the wall and waited out the two minutes . It sounded cliché , but it really was the longest two minutes of her entire life . She stood up and checked the tests . Without even thinking about it a faint smile crossed her face , and a few tears leaked down onto her cheeks . Maybe it wouldn't be easy , but she really wanted this baby.

After washing her face , and calming herself down a little bit she walked out of the bathroom and handed one test to Sara and one to Catherine . It took them almost no time to read the tests and she felt herself being hugged tightly .

" It'll be ok." Sara told her in a sure tone of voice, almost as if she knew what would happen.

" You'll get through it . " Catherine reassured her.

Sofia smiled to herself . " I think … I think that I actually really want this baby . I mean , does it sound stupid that it's a part of me and Greg , and I really want it ? "

"It's not stupid at all . " Sara gave her another quick hug , releasing her when she heard the front door slam .

Sofia heard it too and all of a sudden , all the nerves she had just managed to get rid of came running back at her full speed and she could barely stand still . She braced herself and decided that she had to tell him now or it would just get harder . " I have to tell him now . "

" Okay . Good luck . " Sara smiled at her and waved as she moved towards the stairs.

She smiled back and walked downstairs . Greg and the rest of the guys were sitting in the living room watching a basketball game .

" Don't you ever get tired of sports ? "

Greg ferociously shook his head , and the other guys laughed . " Nah . "

" Well , Sorry Greg , I'm going to have to steal you away for a minute . We need to talk . "

" Lead the way babe . " He felt for the box in his pocket and decided that maybe now , on a spur of the moment kinda thing he would just do it .

They walked out into the garden and sat down on a bench . Sofia grabbed his hand and closed her eyes for a second . In the silence , Greg began to doubt himself . She wasn't breaking up with him was she ?

She didn't really know how to say this, so she just dove right into it. " You know I love you right Greg?"

Greg felt his heart break a little at what she'd just said. That wasn't a good way to start a conversation unless you were trying to end it with someone, without hurting the other person, even though you always did. "Oh God . You're breaking up with me . I can still do commitment , we can slow things down , I mean it's only been a few months but I thought things were going really well , I actually had something I wanted to ask you. " He started to rambled and Sofia cut him off with a quick kiss .

" It's not that . " She told him.

" I changed though. You told me more commitment , to work on my maturity , play my music quieter , wear better clothes , and then just love you ." He mentally checked them off in his mind. He thought that he had done better with everything. "What haven't I been doing right ? "

" You didn't do anything wrong . I don't want to break up with you and I really, really hope that you still want to be with me after what I am going tell you . "

" Let me go first . " He slid off the bench and onto the ground . He reached into his pocket and pulled out the velvet box he had been carrying around for a week now . He took a deep breath while tears formed in Sofia's eyes . " Ok , Sofia , you are my everything . I love you so much more than I ever thought possible. You're the only person I've ever said 'I Love You' to and I intend to keep it that way forever . I really hope that you love me back enough to say yes . " He took another deep breath and tried to read her face while he asked the most important question he had ever asked anyone . Her answer could totally change his life . And at this very moment he could barely breathe. He took one more deep breath and asked , " Will you marry me ? "

A thousand thoughts whirled through Sofia's mind , but they were all good . Memories of everything they'd done together in the past 2 months came to her , and all she could think about is what new memories would come with the new marriage and the baby . It was when she saw Greg go to close the box that she realized she hadn't answered him yet .

" Yes . " She whispered her answer , but it was more than enough for him . Greg stood up and pulled her into a hug . He buried his head in her hair and just took in the essence of the moment . He knew she was crying when he leaned in to kiss her , but with one look at the huge smile she was wearing from ear to ear , he could tell that she wasn't sad by any means. They were tears of happiness , and you could almost see her glowing in the bright sunlight .

They stood that way for longer than either of them cared to admit . It was hard for her to break the happy mood but she had to tell him , or there was a good chance she would end up chickening out , and she knew that she would need his support when she went to the doctor's tomorrow . Even with all of the excitement she felt about having this baby, she knew it was not going to be easy .

It seemed almost like Greg read her mind , or maybe he just felt her tense slightly and begin to pull away , but suddenly he took a step back and helped her sit down on the bench . The smile hadn't worn off her face , but you could see the worry clouding over her features . It didn't take Greg long to ask her what was wrong .

Deciding to just get on with it , she turned towards him and gripped his hand a little tighter . " I think you're going to be a great daddy . But you might have to work on telling other people 'I Love You', or else our kid is going to be in therapy crying , and telling the doctor that her father never told her he loved her . "

Greg laughed . " You'll be a good mommy too . And I could definitely make room for another little girl or even my little boy to steal a piece of my heart if we decide we want kids. But what brought that up ? "

" The fact that in about 8 months you're going to have to give out a piece of your heart. "

It took him a while to figure out exactly what she meant . When he finally got it , Sofia saw his eyes fly open and dart towards her stomach , almost as if he was trying to see the baby . When Greg finally met her eyes she could see the unanswered question in his eyes . Slowly she nodded , pausing to see his reaction . She let it sink in a minute before she started to stand up . By now , more tears were forming in her eyes and her bright smile was gone .

"You don't have to be okay with it . I'm not getting rid of if . "

Greg shook himself out of the shock he'd been in when he heard Sofia start to talk . She thought he didn't want this baby . He stood up and pulled her into another hug . This time a little more carefully .

" Of Course I want this baby. It'll be a little part of me and you , how could I not love it ? "

The smile flew back to her face and she threw her arms around his neck and gave him a big kiss . She leaned her forehead against his and smiled. "Thank you . "

" For what ? "

" Just being you . " She took a deep breath and slowly let everything that had happened today sink into her mind . So much had happened , and it was barely 3:00 .

"So, have you been to the doctors or anything yet ? "

She shook her head slowly . "Tomorrow . You're coming right ?"

" I wouldn't miss it for anything . "

"Good. You know , you're going to be supportive if it kills you . You don't have to come to all my appointments , or come shopping , but when I want ice cream in the middle of the night , you better be ready to run and get it . "

He smiled at her and quickly kissed her. " Okay. Just call me Mr. Ice Cream. "

Sofia laughed at him, but couldn't help but think about how he always managed to make her feel so much better. She locked hands with him, and then just stared at their hands . Her fingers weaved through his, her ring shining brightly in the sun .

" You can tell the guys about the baby if you want . Sara and Catherine already know. "

" Well , nobody knows about the engagement yet . Apparently I can keep a secret better than you can. "

He laughed and Sofia had to laugh along with him . It was infectious . Slowly their laughter died down and they stood up to go inside together . To get everybody together for yet another huge announcement today .


	19. Why are you so Reasonable ?

As they Greg and Sofia walked back to the house she was trying to decide the best way to tell her friends about the engagement , and tell the guys about the baby. Suddenly she stopped and Greg who was holding her hand was jerked backwards .

He turned around and saw the look on her face . She looked truly scared . Her eyes were worried and the smile had all but disappeared from her face .

" What's wrong ? " He pulled her into a hug and she buried her face in his shoulder .

"How are we supposed to tell them ? I don't want them to think you just proposed because I'm pregnant ."

"Hey . " He kissed the top of her head and she lifted her gaze to meet his eyes . "No one is going to think that. They'll all be too jealous that I get to marry you and have that you're having my baby . "

She laughed. "They're all married, two of them to my best friends . "

Greg smiled back at her . "What was that, your best friends ? Do you really think your best friends would feel sorry for me if you told them that you were getting married? I think that they'd be ecstatic."

She looked at the ground. "Why are you so reasonable, aren't you scared ?"

"I am scared out of my mind , but that doesn't affect how happy I am that I get to marry you and be a daddy." He told her honestly.

Sofia smiled and looked up . "I don't know how you manage to always make me feel better . "

He leaned down and whispered in her ear , "It's the hair . "

She burst into laughter and had to hold onto him to keep from falling down . "What ? "

He shrugged. " I don't know . But it made you laugh ."

She hugged him and kissed him softly , resting her head on his chest. " Thank you. "

" No Problem . It's my job to take all the pre-baby hormones and make sure the general public isn't exposed to your wrath."

She gently smacked him on the arm and smiled . Somewhere between his constant flirting and his stupid jokes she had fallen in love with him .

"So , do you want to tell Catherine and Sara , and I'll tell the guys ? " She nodded . " Okay , are you ready now or do you want to wait a few more minutes ? "

"We can go inside now . " She sighed and kissed his cheek before opening the front door and walking upstairs .

* * *

Sofia walked toward the bedroom and couldn't wipe the smile off her face . She took a deep breath to prepare herself and walked into Sara and Nick's bedroom . Catherine and Sara most have been playing some kind of card game. They were both sitting cross-legged on the bed , holding about 20 cards each. Between them was a pile of cards and then what must have been the 'loot' pile, four different containers of Ben and Jerry's ice cream in four different flavors, a few bags of pretzels , and a couple bags of white cheddar popcorn .

"BS ! " Catherine yelled and flipped over the cards . Sara blushed and nodded , she took the cards while Catherine took the snacks in the middle .

Sofia burst out laughing , and they turned to look at her . " Who's winning ? "

Catherine raised her hand . "That'd be me . "

"Can I play ? "

Sara nodded and motioned towards the pile of snacks sitting on the window seat across the room . "The guys bought us all kinds of snacks and stuff, it's all over there. You need to get some betting material. "

She walked towards the ledge and pulled out a bag of chips and grabbed a couple mini chocolate bars. Catherine and Sara made room for her on the bed and she sat down .

"Do you want to just start over? You're losing pretty badly anyway." Catherine asked Sara with a smirk.

Sara rolled her eyes but nodded and started to explain the rules to Sofia. "So , we're playing a modified version of BS . I know you know how to play that , so I'll just explain what we changed." She popped a pretzel in her mouth after dipping it in the ice cream. " When you put your cards down , you make a bet. That just goes in the middle. Now, If you call the BS and you're right , you get the pile and the other person gets the cards . If you're wrong you get the cards and they get the snacks . "

" And we do get to eat the snacks right ? "

Catherine nodded . " As long as they're in your pile . "

" Alright let's do this ." She reached into the middle to grab her pile of cards and make the mistake of using her left hand .

Sara caught a glimpse of the ring and grabbed her hand . "What is this ? "

Sofia rolled her eyes . "What does it look like ? "

Catherine's eyes lit up and she leaned forward. " Tell us everything. How did he propose ? "

The game was put on hold while she gave her best friends all the details .

* * *

Meanwhile Greg was sitting on the couch watching football . He wasn't completely focused and accidently cheered for the wrong team .

Nick turned towards him with his eyebrow raised . "You switch teams while you were out there ? "

" Nah , I'm just a little distracted ." He smiled and pulled an empty ring box out of his jacket , he opened it up and set it on the coffee table . " She said yes . "

Warrick stood up and walked over to him , he clapped him on the back . "Congratulations . "

Greg decided to just throw everything out there at once."You know, while we were out there I did find out that I'm going to be a daddy. "

Warrick groaned . "Can't you do anything normally Greg? "

" Hey , at least I'm telling you guys that I'm getting married. " He shot a look towards Grissom .

Nick laughed and nudged Gil . "He's got a point you know. But, I'd bet that she's not the only one pregnant woman upstairs . "

" We all know Sara's pregnant too Nick . " Warrick pointed out and punched him in the arm .

Nick raised his eyebrows and looked over towards Gil . "Fine. I'm pretty sure that there's more than two pregnant women upstairs right now . "

All eyes moved from Nick to Grissom .

Gil groaned and flopped back in his chair . "Catherine's pregnant too . "

Greg's mouth fell open and he looked over at him in protest , " And you were ragging on me ? "

"We're married Greggo." Grissom told him.

" Whatever . " He grabbed the remote and turned the volume up on the TV , successfully changing the subject as the Seahawks scored another touchdown and their attention was directed back to the game.


	20. Finding Out The Sexes

Nick and Sara sat in the familiar waiting room of their doctor's office. The only thing that had changed since their first visit just a few short months ago was the size of Sara's stomach. In fact, that was one thing that seemed to change constantly. Sara despised how fast she grew out of clothes, she had gone through more than three sets of clothing already because it seemed every few weeks she became too big for the old ones. Nick, on the other hand loved buying anything for the babies or Sara. He had purchased more than enough clothes to last all of the babies until they were two. And, he had tried to pick out more furniture for the babies, but since Sara didn't know what she was having yet , she had announced that painting and designing was out of the question.

The job of picking names was coming up fast too. At this week's check-up, they would hopefully find out a few of the babies sexes if not all of them. She had hit the 20 week mark with ease and it was finally time to find out. Everything had gone normally so far, and each of the babies had been healthy and seemingly content for the time being.

They were called back and with a bit of help Sara found herself on familiar exam table, excited to find out the sexes of her babies.

Nick, though excited, seemed much more nervous than Sara was. He was currently pacing long ovals across the exam room's tiled floor. Sara took one look at him and rolled her eyes.

"Nick! You need to calm down for this. Pacing isn't going to help your nerves and it's just going to agitate me."

He looked over at her apologetically and smiled. "Sorry, I guess that this is just going to really finalize everything. After this we can pick the names, and paint the nurseries. It's just hitting me hard that this is all real right now."

Sara smiled back at him and just shook her head. "Don't worry about it. You're allowed to be a little nervous, but the excitement should definitely overpower that. Plus , you know that we can't change the outcome of this scan anyway. Each of these babies is already a little boy or girl and we're going to love them all."

Nick grabbed her hand and squeezed it lightly. "I am excited. I can't wait to find out, we've waited such a long time, but it's finally sinking in that each of those babies is a little person and we're going to be their parents in what doesn't seem like enough time to prepare."

"Nicky, no parent is ever prepared, and you certainly can't expect to just be able to suddenly cope with all this at once. And there will probably never be enough time to be completely ready for this. But we're going to have to dive in headfirst when they get here and hope we can tread water long enough to learn to swim."

Nick laughed and nodded at her. "I think that I'm just going to have to get over my fear, because it's not going away with a few deep breaths."

Sara shook her head. "It's not going to go away. It's good to be a little scared, if you weren't scared I would probably call you crazy."

Just then the doctor walked in and sat in the stool resting next to the sonogram machine. "Ready to see your babies?"

Sara nodded eagerly and Nick smiled at the doctor then returned his gaze to Sara.

"Alright. For this sonogram I'm going to do things a little differently. I'll do the normal group print out for you , then I'll zoom in to each baby and try to pin-point the sex of each baby and print out a copy of that picture for you."

"Ok. Sounds good."

Dr. West applied some of the gel to Sara's stomach and grabbed the wand from off the cart, pausing to check the machine before moving it around in slight circles across her stomach. "The first baby is a little girl, Baby A. She weighs about two pounds right now. Baby B is also a little girl, she looks to weigh about 2.5 pounds."

Sara gasped, tears running down her face and Nick's as well. "Two little girls."

He smiled and her and squeezed her hand reassuringly, gently wiping away some of her tears as the doctor continued.

"Baby C and Baby D are both a bit bigger, weighing in at about three pounds each, both little boys."

Nick looked at her. "Two for Two. Maybe it'll be perfectly even- Three and Three."

Sara just nodded , unable to tear her eyes away from the small screen, currently containing her entire future.

"Baby E and Baby F are also looking healthy in weight, about 2.5 pounds, and two more little girls for you. Congratulations."

Sara finally turned towards Nick as Dr. West ran a final scan. She leaned over to kiss him lightly, breaking off suddenly when she heard the doctor gasp. Sara whipped her head around and looked at her.

"What ? What is wrong with my babies ?!"

"Nothing Mrs. Stokes, all of the babies are fine. You need to calm down for the babies sake before I tell you."

"And you're sure that this isn't bad news?" Sara questioned, obviously still worried.

The doctor shook her head. "I promise it is nothing bad. It's just that when I recounted I think I made a mistake." Sara let out a sigh and loosened her grip on Nick's hand. "There were four little girls. Baby A, Baby B, Baby E and Baby F. Then I counted two little boys, Baby C and Baby D."

Nick looked at the doctor, confused from what she was saying. There was a long pause on everyone's part before the doctor took a deep breath and spoke again.

"Apparently Baby G is also a little boy. He is very healthy, the biggest baby out of all of them, weighing in at almost 3.5 pounds."

Sara's eyes widened for a moment before a huge smile overtook her face and she turned to look at Nick. "It's just another wave in the pool. It surprised us, and covered our heads for a second, but we're still going to keep on swimming."

Nick nodded and smiled at her, lightly resting a hand on her stomach before kissing it gently. " Seven babies Sar."

"What's one more?" She laughed.

"I'll go print out these pictures for you, and then you're free to go. I think that you probably have some phone calls to make."

"If I can get off this table." Sara groaned and swung her feet over the edge before Nick lifted her off and to the ground where she tried to catch her balance before walking over to grab her jacket and her purse.


	21. Naming the Babies

Sara sat back in bed and rested her head on the mound of pillows Nick had setup for her this morning. As she had come to do constantly, she began to stroke her belly, it was getting huge now. This morning it measured in at 45 inches. She could barely walk anymore. Her doctor's appointment had been over a week ago, but there hadn't been time for the whole team to come over yet, and since Sara was on strict bed rest except for doctor's appointments, they hadn't been told about the extra baby yet.

Since her appointment, it had been decided that Sara should be admitted to the hospital prior to delivery so that the babies could be kept under constant supervision. She would become a full-time patient of Desert Palm at 22 weeks and be kept under her doctor's watchful eye until it was time for delivery. As it was, she wasn't allowed to get out of bed except to go to the bathroom, and she was no longer allowed to go up and down stairs. They had even had to move Nick and Sara's bedroom downstairs, where it was closer to the kitchen and next to a bathroom.

Being put on such strict limitations had been extremely hard for Sara. She was used to being independent and doing everything for herself. Now, she couldn't even stand without someone's help. She wasn't excited about the amount of time she had to spend in the hospital, but she was almost glad that she wouldn't have to worry about something happening when no one was home.

Smiling, she reached over and grabbed the clipboard that was sitting on her nightstand. She quickly wrote down another name and scanned the list that had accumulated over the first few pages. So far they hadn't picked any out definitely, but Sara had a few that she knew were going to be used.

On the front page, girls, almost 15 names were listed. Emma, Kylie or Kaylee, Lauren, Elizabeth, Lynn, Haley, Danielle, Abigail, Madeline, Aubrey, Faith, Alexandra, Caroline and Taylor.

The second page almost rivaled the first with 14 names. Ryan, Nicholas, Dylan, Matthew, Caleb, Brandon, Tristan, Ethan, Conner, Logan, Wyatt, Riley, Cameron, and Nathan.

Sara was adding to both lists daily and also crossing off names as she went. At times the names got a little crazy and the next morning she just ripped the entire page off and started over. Nick had vetoed and few names too, and added almost as many as Sara. Today they were going to narrow it down before everyone got here.

She had just finished when she heard the front door close and Nick yelled out to her.

" Sara, I'm home." He called up the steps as he took off his shoes and his jacket at the front door.

She rolled her eyes. "Me too."

Nick walked in and laid on the bed next to her, gently removing the clipboard from her hands, looking over the new additions.

"Why'd you take off Tara and Cassidy ?" He looked over at her questioningly.

"I just don't like them anymore." She replied simply. It was hard to figure out why she liked a name one day and hated it the next, but it happened.

He nodded. "I really like Aubrey, and Wyatt."

Sara smiled and circled those. "Are there anymore you want to add before we start making names?"

Nick took one last look and shook his head. "I like all the ones you have on there. None of them are too weird and I don't think you spelled any of them different than normal."

"I don't want them to have to go through life with teachers pronouncing their names wrong or misspelling them." Sara told him with a serious look on her face. "And I certainly don't want them to get made fun of for having a weird name."

Nick nodded. "We'll have to come back to this later. Everybody's coming over at 11:00. Cath and Gil are bringing Lindsey too. She's been dying to see you."

Sara grinned. "Good."

Nick kissed her lightly on the lips before kissing her stomach and getting off the bed to help Sara up and into the living room. After getting her settled and as comfortable as she could possibly be, he ran upstairs to shower, leaving her with the television remote, the house phone and her clipboard.

Not even five minutes into her episode of CSI:Miami, the phone rang. She checked caller ID and saw Catherine's named flash across the screen.

"Hey Cath."

"I hate Grissom." She announced, her voice full of venom. In the background, Sara could hear Gil apologizing profusely.

"Why?" She tried not to laugh, because she knew that Catherine was probably dead serious at the moment. Sara had went through this phase too. When she had first gotten morning sickness and it hadn't let up after 5 weeks, she hated Nick more than anyone else on the planet.

"I'm not allowed to work anymore." Catherine told her, probably glaring at Grissom as she said it.

Sara gasped in surprise. She had expected it to be something stupid that her hormones were playing up. She knew all about over-active hormones. "What?!"

"Nope." She said, popping the P. "Apparently I'm a liability."

"Did Ecklie tell you that you couldn't work anymore? You're only 18 weeks, that's against department policy, you shouldn't that to take maternity leave until you're 7 months at the earliest."

"No, no. It was my dear husband." She said sarcastically.

"Catherine, there has to be a reason. He wouldn't sacrifice another great worker if he didn't have to." She said, trying to find the actual cause for her long term suspension.

"All I did was throw up on him at a crime scene." Sara threw her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter.

In the background she heard Gil."You compromised the scene and the evidence that I was processing. We can't have that happen again."

Catherine groaned. "At least I'll be able to hang out with you Sar."

Sara brightened at the idea of having someone to spend time with for the next three weeks. She had been alone in her misery for about a month now. "You know, this could be fun. I bet we could get Nicky to do a little renovating for us." Nick, who was walking into the living room stopped and stared at her. Sara smiled at him and continued. "We have a whole bunch of extra rooms downstairs. I think we should make a pregnancy room."

Nick's eyes widened and he looked at her curiously. "What?" He whispered.

"Hey, I'll call you back. I have to run this by Nick, but I'm sure he'll say yes. I'll call you back with the details." Sara told Catherine.

"Ok, Sure." Catherine said, sounding a little confused. "Bye."

After putting the phone the phone down, she turned to Nick and took a deep breath. "Alright, I'm not sure if you know that Catherine isn't allowed to work anymore, but she can't." He nodded. "So, I had the idea for her to come over here-."

"Oh, that's a great idea." Nick exclaimed. He knew how much she hated being alone all day.

"I wasn't finished." She glared at him playfully before continuing. "Now, since we're going to be spending a whole bunch of time together and in one play, it should at least be comfortable right?"

Carefully Nick nodded, not quite sure what he was getting himself into. "Anything that makes you more comfortable is good."

She smiled at him. "So, you would be ok with us redoing one of the extra rooms down here right?"

"You live here too Sara, you can do whatever you want."

Her eyes lit up and she kissed him excitedly before picking up the phone and calling Catherine back.

"Hey, can you get Gil to bring you over here now instead of at 11:00 , because we have some major planning to do."

"Sure, why?"

"Nick said it was okay if we wanted to give one of the empty rooms a make-over." Sara told her excitedly.

Catherine squealed. "This is going to be so much fun!"

"I know! Get here as soon as you can and we'll do a little online shopping."

"Alright. I'll be over soon."

"Bye." She hung up the phone and looked over at Nick who had almost fallen asleep on the couch. She leaned over and covered him up with the crocheted afghan his mom had made for them and kissed him lightly on the forehead before grabbing her laptop and browsing through some home décor websites.


	22. Online Shopping

Not even a half hour later, Catherine walked in, obviously much happier than she had been just a few minutes ago. Gil walked behind her, a look of thanks on his face. Sara nodded at him from her place on the couch and waved him off towards the living room where Nick was watching some kind of game on TV, or quite possibly sleeping again.

"I think I found the perfect décor set. It'll be cute for our girl room even after the babies are here." She pulled up the webpage on her laptop and turned the computer towards Catherine so she could have a say. On the few pages Sara brought up was a cart with two couches, two recliners, a large rug shaped like a circle, three lamps, two tables, and five pillows with matching blankets.

She took one look at the page and nodded. "I love it. Maybe we could get the guys to paint the bottom half of the room a shade of light brown and then we could do the top half in a pale pink, so that it would match these two couches."

"And this recliner here too. And the rug. Oh, and it would match the curtains perfectly if we could find the right shade of pink. Almost everything we picked out would look good in a pink and brown room." She pointed out. As she finished talking, her face lit up, she grabbed the laptop back and changed the page quickly. After a second she pulled up a Home Depot paint scheme. There was a light baby pink, a slightly darker shade , and then a creamy brown."What do you think about using this darker pink as the top half of the wall's base coat and then putting polka dots in the lighter pink on top?"

Catherine looked over her shoulder and agreed. "You know, I just realized that this is kind of pointless. You're only home for another week and a half or so more."

Sara groaned. "Then I get a six to eight week vacation in my most favorite place. Desert Palm Hospital."

Catherine looked at her and smiled in a motherly way, "But you'll come out of it with six babies. Don't you think that a four week stay in hell will be worth it in the end when you're bringing home your very own babies?"

A faint smile appeared on Sara's face at the thought of her babies, and she absentmindedly stroked her stomach as she had come to do over the last 5 months. "It'll be more than worth it Cath. It's just really hard to believe that all this is real, you know? In less than a year I went from a workaholic that spent most of her time alone, reading science textbooks and listening to the police scanner, to being the happily married Mrs. Nick Stokes and a soon to be mother of seven. It all feels like a dream. "

Catherine smiled. "I hope that feeling never goes away."

Sara hugged her friend. "Me too."

They browsed through a few different sites, quickly adding various items to their cart and then moving to the next website. After about an hour, they had completely finished their shopping and were moving onto the layout of where everything would go.

"We can angle these two couches toward the television, and then sit the recliners in the middle. Maybe put the fridge in the back corner?"

"That sounds good, the bay window takes up a lot of the back wall, but if it was in the corner, it'll be fine." She agreed.

Catherine ordered the last cart full of furniture and closed the laptop, leaning back into the couch with a sigh. "Who knew that online shopping could be more tiring than regular shopping?"

Sara laughed changed her position on the couch so that she could more comfortably recline. Her stomach was keeping her from ever getting too comfortable though. For a moment she was envious of Catherine and her seemingly tiny belly, but then she realized she wouldn't trade these babies for anything. She wanted all seven of them, she loved all of them already, and that would never change.


	23. Three Little Boys, Four Little Girls

When Sofia and Greg finally showed up, the smile on Sofia's face was undeniably the biggest one Catherine or Sara had even seen her sporting. Her eyes were twinkling and her face was lightly blushed with the 'glow' that came with being pregnant. Greg didn't look too upset either. In fact, he looked the perfect picture of a proud daddy-to-be, his arm around Sofia and his hand resting on his fiancé's stomach, occasionally stroking it gently.

"What's got you so happy?" Sara asked, slightly upset that everyone else could enjoy their pregnancy while she had to lay on bed rest.

Sofia smiled and her hand unconsciously came to rest over her slightly protruding stomach. "I found out what I'm having."

Catherine and Sara immediately looked up at her. Greg took this as his cue to leave and kissed Sofia on the cheek and gave her belly a sweet kiss before waving to the girls and walking out and towards the living room. Sara waited a second, and when Sofia didn't start talking she prodded. "Well…?"

"It's a little boy." Again the beaming smile over took her face and this time Catherine and Sara shared similar smiles.

"Congratulations." Sara told her friend, gently patting her arm. "Have you picked out a name yet?"

Sofia rolled her eyes. "Not even close. I'm plenty busy trying to keep a few select names out of Greg's head. What about you Cath, have you found out the sex yet?"

Catherine thought for a second and decided she might as well tell them now. "We found out at my doctor's appointment Tuesday morning. Gil and I actually just decided one names last night. We gave Lindsey a chance to suggest some names and she had some good ideas. We decided on Madison Hope for our little girl."

Sara and Sofia both awed. "What a cute name." Sara remarked.

Catherine looked from Sara to Sofia, and continued. "And we choose Caleb Anthony for our little boy."

It took a second for what Catherine had just told them to sink in, but when it did, Sara was the first one to recover. "Oh wow. I guess more congratulations are in order. When did you find out it was twins?"

"The same time we found out the sexes."

Sofia shook her head. "I don't know how in the world you guys are going to deal with all those babies. I'm worried enough as it is with just this little guy."

Catherine looked at Sara. "I don't know how Sara's going to handle six babies. Twins seems like a pretty big deal to me, but I have Grissom. He's an amazing dad to Lindsey already, and I know he's going to be amazing with the twins too."

Sara smirked. "Six? Try seven Catherine."

Slowly, as if trying to let the news sink in, she turned her head towards Sara. "Seven?"

Sofia didn't even try to hide her surprise like Catherine did, her mouth fell open and she stared at Sara in pure shock. "When did you find that out?!"

In a completely calm demeanor she smiled. "The doctor told me at my appointment last week. That's the whole reason that we invited you all over. Not that I don't enjoy your company."

Sofia just shook her head. "Good luck girl. You're going to need it."

Catherine stood up and gave her a hug. "Is Nick telling the boys?"

Sara sighed. "I'd like to say that he is, but more likely than not, they're probably watching some kinda sporting event and then he'll just throw it out there during a commercial. So I'm going to walk towards the living room and make the announcement again if you two could help me up."

Sofia and Catherine each grabbed one of her hands and lightly pulled. Sara then walked the short distance to the living room where she was greeted by Nick's immediate questioning about her health.

"Sara! Are you okay?" He jumped up from his spot on the couch and ushered her to it.

Sara rolled her eyes. "Yes Nick. I'm fine. I just forgot that I can't walk 15 feet from one room to the next without an interrogation."

Nick smiled sheepishly and rubbed her stomach. "I'm sorry. But everything's okay?"

She smiled backed and nodded. "Everything's perfectly fine."

"Good." Nick leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips before taking his spot next to her on the couch and returning his attention to the game that was currently on the television, just as Sara had predicted.

After Catherine and Sofia had settled themselves next to their respective men, Sara leaned over and whispered in Nick's ear. "Did you tell them about the babies?"

Again Nick looked over with a sheepish smile on his face and shook his head. "I'm sorry. Again. Do you want to tell them now?"

She looked over at him and nodded. Then she grabbed the remote and turned down the volume. Immediately she got the desired effect as Grissom and Greg turned towards her.

"What was that for ?!" Greg asked.

"Sara, would you like us to move somewhere else?" Grissom asked a bit more politely than Greg.

She laughed lightly. "I just have a small announcement before you guys can continue watching the game."

Both of the guys nodded and Nick moved to put his arm around his wife. She looked up at him and he kissed the top of her head. "The doctor's made a slight mistake when they were counting the babies."

Nick continued, the smile breaking out over his features. "I'm going to be a daddy to three little boys, and four little girls."

Catherine and Sofia looked a little smug that they already knew, but both of the guys had the same shell-shocked reaction that both of them had for a few minutes. It took the guys longer, but eventually they moved over and congratulated both Nick and Sara on the seventh baby.

After things had settled back down again Greg looked over at Nick and Sara, before looking at her stomach. "So, how long until you think you're gonna pop?"

Sara rolled her eyes and threw a pillow at him as Sofia punched him in the arm. "Not for awhile Greggo. Sorry."


	24. Day in the Girl's Room

Sara, Catherine and Sofia sat in the newly renovated ladies room, which would become a haven for the little girls to escape their brothers in the soon to be slightly crowded house. Though each child would have their own room for privacy and probably their sanity, this would be a room with an invisible 'No Boys Allowed' sign on the door. Sara had even talked to Nick about renovating one of the empty rooms on the ground floor for the boys as well, but he insisted that the backyard was good enough. So Sara, not willing to argue with him about something as trivial as that let him have his fun with the back yard. He'd suggested a tree-house, a fort and a few other things that sounded like a good bonding activity for the men while the ladies sat and waited.

For some reason or another Sara looked at the clock yet again, for the third time since it struck 1:37. "Does anybody else feel like time is moving slower than dirt lately? It feels like all I do is look at the clock and wait."

Catherine held up her hand. "I do too. But, I've got a longer wait than you Sar. My countdown clocks are moving at a speed slower than dirt."

With a smile Sofia looked over at her friends. "Oh I don't know. My pregnancy hasn't been that bad, and I'm kind of enjoying it."

"That's because it's your first time going through it all. Oh, the novelty of a first pregnancy." Catherine replied with a motherly tone and a look on her face as though she was remembering her own first pregnancy.

"Yeah, the novelty of it wore off for me _real_ fast. First time being a mother, people ask. Yes, but if you don't have septuplets – please don't try to give me advice on how I should raise them. Especially when they're not even born yet." Sara said, rolling her eyes.

"But you certainly don't want anything speeding up, especially that impending trip to the hospital." Sofia added, slightly mockingly.

Sara turned to glare at her when all of a sudden her expression turned to one filled with pain and worry. "Oh my god."

Catherine immediately rushed over while Sofia babbled, trying to take back her words. "Sara, you need to talk to me. What's wrong?"

"I- I Think I need to get to the hospital." She took another deep breath before her face relaxed. "I'm supposed to be there anyway. I'm still surprised that they let me go this long.."

Sara had hit the 26 week mark yesterday, and after two weeks of perfect doctor's appointments- the doctor had agreed that it seemed as though being at home was working for her for the time being and has let her stay home since. He was even coming to their home for appointments now. Though at 27 weeks, she was entering the hospital no matter how well she was doing, under strict orders.

Catherine shot a look at her friend, who was much too calm for a situation that seemed scarier than death itself. "Sofia, I need you to go get Nick from the back-yard. Sara, can you walk with me to the car?"

Sara smiled weakly. "Actually, there's a wheelchair in the hall closet along with my bag and a pink and blue duffle bag for the babies. Nick knows what to do, and he'll be here in a min-"

Before she could finish her statement Nick came running in, sweat glistening off his forehead and his eyes filled with tears. "You think it's time Sar?"

With a smile larger than Nick had ever seen on his wife, she nodded. "I think it might be time to meet our babies Nick. Can you imagine?" Without a second thought, Nick broke into a smile as well.

While Nick and Sara had been talking, Catherine had paid a visit to their hall closet, grabbed both duffle bags, and brought the wheelchair to her friend. Soon after, Catherine and the parents-to-be were driving to the hospital at a speed that might get them pulled over – but for a reason that would get them sent right back on the road. Sara had called her doctor, and sent out a message on the four baby pagers that had been given out to Grissom, Nick's parents, the chief of staff at the hospital and the head of the team of nurses that would be assisting the delivery.

As Nick pulled their SUV into the valet parking of the emergency room, a team rushed his car and had his wife out before he could get out and hand out the keys. Throwing the keys at the poor valet, he sprinted after his wife until one of the nurses turned around and told him that he needed to scrub up before he could come into this wing of the hospital. Nick did, and Sara's doctor walked him through what was soon to follow. She had already been checked and her feeling had been correct, she was in fact having contractions and it was time to get the babies out.

When the tears started to build up in Nick's eyes Dr. West took a hold of his shoulders and looked him in the eyes. "We told your wife that she needed to make it to 26 weeks; do you know how far she made it?"

"27 weeks and 1 day." Nick whispered, barely audible.

"Exactly. We told her that the babies would have a good chance and they will. We have the best doctors and nurses from around the country, all volunteers who flew out to help you and Sara go home with 7 babies in a few months. For that to happen Mr. Stokes I'm going to need to you calm down and come with me."

He took a deep breath, counted to five and then let it out. "I'm ready. Let's go."


	25. They're Here

As soon as Nick arrived with Dr. West, she gave him the okay to proceed on and the procedure was started. Seven NICU nurses were already stationed around the room, each armed with a glass bassinet with a machine resting on the lower shelf, surrounded with tubes and wires. It looked wrong to Nick, but if it was going to help his babies, he was going to allow it. After another second of staring he was again ushered towards the operating table, this time towards the end where his wife lay motionless. He knew that she would not want to miss this moment, despite being out cold and was determined to get it all on film. Within 20 minutes the doctor announced that she had the first baby ready to come out and she would need her nurses on standby.

The look on Nick's face could not be described by anyone the moment he saw his first born. Her mouth was suctioned and she was passed off to a waiting nurse with dinosaur scrubs on, who immediately hooked his daughter up to a breathing machine and then began normal procedures.

She called out, "Baby A – 3lb 9oz. Your first little girl."

In the next 10 minutes each of his babies was delivered, all of them being immediately hooked on an oxygen machine and placed in their incubators. The time each baby was delivered was written on a card, along with its weight, length and gender. Later on Nick would get to walk through the NICU nursery and name each one, but for this moment he was content to watch the hustle and bustle around him and occasionally look down at his gorgeous wife. She was unconsciously asleep, but to him she was still gorgeous. She had slightly rosy cheeks and though she was not awake, her features did seem lighter and happier with the babies all safely delivered and off to the nursery. In Nick's opinion, they were taken away from him much too fast and it really hit him that he was a father all at once. He got the primal urges to protect his little girls from anything that could harm them, and he already wanted to go and teach his boys something, but he knew that it would be a long time before he was actually teaching any of them anything other than to sleep and eat and poop. That would be their lives in a few months, but for now he was ready to be ushered to see his babies. Sara had been stitched up, and it seemed as though they had removed some of the extra skin that had accumulated on her stomach before re-stitching it together. They were taking her to recovery, where there were no visitors aloud for the first few hours after surgery.

An African American nurse with a heavy New York accent and ice blue penguin scrubs rested a hand on his shoulder. "Are you ready to go see your babies?"

With the grin of a new father, he moved towards the room that had been reserved for just his children and their nurses. The hospital knew that Nick requested, well ordered that his babies were not to be separated until they were individually released in a few months- and they had done their best to accommodate that request as best as possible.

They were each resting in an incubator, looking as tiny and fragile as porcelain dolls. Nick hoped that they would get bigger soon, because he couldn't stand to see them looking so weak. With paper thin skin, and arm as thin as his thumb, they were probably the smallest babies he had ever seen. And, they were his. Each of those seven babies was a part of him, and that feeling of pride and love could not be rivaled by anything he'd ever experienced.

After simply staring at his creations for a long while, Dr. West came and found Nick in the rocking chair that his wife would most likely inhabit daily as soon as she could, Sara was awake and she was more than ready to see her babies. One of the nurses had taken the liberty of taking a Polaroid picture of each freshly cleaned and dressed baby and taping it to the back of the information cards and giving them to Nick. It was those he took with him to Sara's room so that they could name the babies together. It was this moment that the last few stressful months have been building up to. They could finally sit together and see their babies, given it were through pictures- but it was enough.

He walked into his wife's room, and smiled at her excited face. He attempted to sit down in the chair next to her bed, but before he could get all the way into the chair his was demanding, "Let me see the pictures!".

Nick handed them over and watched as she spread them out across her hospital bed, pausing to the read the information on the back of each. He watched as her eyes raked over the pictures, glimmering with the same expression of love and excitement that had rested across Nick's features all day.

Sara took the first picture, the card for their oldest girl and smiled. On the front she wrote Emiliana Claire. Nick glanced over her shoulder and nodded, "Perfect."

She moved that one higher up now that she had a name and picked up the next card. A 3lb 15oz baby boy, their second born. After studying the picture and glancing over at the list of names she had written down she picked up her pen again and wrote down Eric Michael. Once again Nick smiled at the selection and this time he picked up a card. It was for another one of his daughters, a 4lb 2oz baby. The biggest of the first three, but out of the whole group she was hovering right in the middle. Nick consulted the list and wrote down Kaylee Lynn. She looked like a Kaylee, her eyes delicate and her brown fuzz the color of his own. The next picture was for another one of his daughters, the biggest of their girls- 4lb 4oz. This baby's looks matched Kaylee's almost exactly, as though they were twins. Her name was going to be Abigail Madeline.

The next two out were Nick's last two sons. Again, these boys looked as though they could be twins, but one did weigh more. The larger baby was named Dylan Conner, while their youngest son was Wyatt Matthew. Their baby, the very youngest and consequently the smallest as well was going to be named Aubree Faith with her middle name reflecting the trouble they went through with finding her in the sonogram pictures and the faith they had in her to grow up and be strong like her brothers and sisters even though she barely weighed three pounds.

Nick placed his two cards back in the line that Sara had made on her bed. Her eyes were locked on the line and slowly he climbed into bed next to her and wrapped his arms around her as they looked at their family- the lives and beings that they had created from nothing. They were parents now, and these were their children. They had seven lives to live for and it was going to make life a whole lot more fun in the near future.


	26. The Last Homecoming

Nick and Sara were loading up their car with a baby for the final time since the day that that had changed their lives almost a year ago. It had been 10 long, stressful months before all 7 seven babies were allowed home. Before they could be released each baby had to gain a weight of 8lb and be able to breathe all on their own, a challenge for a few of the smaller babies. Slowly though, each of the babies was sent home with a clean bill of health. Aubree had the toughest time, giving both of her parents a deep scare when her heart stopped in her incubator for just a second, but that was long enough to scare Sara enough that she had nightmares for weeks.

Buckling the last strap on the car seat, Sara patted the top of her youngest daughters head with a smile. "We can go."

Nick looked into the back seat with a proud smile. "You sure you don't want to say goodbye to the hospital one more time?"

With a somewhat saddened look, she tore her gaze away from her precious baby and towards the brick building where she had spent hours almost every day. The building that had caused her so much pain, and yet, it was the place where she had been given her seven miracles. Taking one last look at the building she hoped to never visit again, she turned back towards her husband and nodded. "We can't keep everybody waiting for too much longer."

The entire team, and the newest generations were waiting back at their house to celebrate the babies' homecoming. Nick and Sara had decided together that they weren't going to have a baby shower with their friends before the babies had been born, but would instead celebrate by having all of their friends come over once the babies were all home. It had been a bit of a problem, as Nick and Sara had come to their own baby showers and bought them much too much, and they couldn't even return the favor- but the proud parents claimed that they wanted a day to show off the babies, not a day for themselves.

After a longer than usual drive home, Nick pulled their van into the driveway. Looking around he saw a few other cars that his friends had driven here and smiled. He had no doubt that the babies were awake, even though the nannies were probably screaming at Catherine and Sofia for ruining the schedule. As much as the two new parents had hated to hire nannies to help with their kids- there was no way that they could do it alone without taking advantage of their friends and their family, even with Nick and Sara not working.

Yes, Nick and Sara had both resigned from their jobs with the crime lab. It had been their mutual passion before the babies had come along. But, with seven reasons to stay home now, it wasn't hard to make the decision. Though, they were always welcome at the lab, and kept up to date about the most interesting cases by their friends. Though it seemed at big gatherings that the talk was no longer about work as it had been even a year ago.

Nick opened the door and waited as Sara walked through holding their daughter, he then shut it and followed her down the hallway and into the living room where you could hear laughing from a mile away. Shrugging off his jacket and throwing it on the back of a chair, he stood in the doorway of the room and looked around. Catherine and Gil sat on a loveseat, Catherine with her feet tucked up under her and laughing animatedly and Gil with one arm around his wife and one cradling his sleeping daughter Madison Hope. On the floor next to them, Lucas Alexander crawled around carefully, his curly hair bouncing and his bright blue eyes shining.

Greg and Sofia were quite the contrast from his older colleagues, Sofia was pressed up against one edge of the couch, shoving Greg away with her feet and laughing rambunctiously- their son Logan Oliver content to relax in his baby carrier on the floor. At ten months old, he turned out to be quite the little Greg. He loved to eat and loved sleeping and relaxing, content to he held rather than learn to crawl and oddly enough it was the sound of rock music put him to sleep every night.

Warrick hadn't been able to make it, but his picture sat on the mantle above the fire place. He and his wife had been having a lot of problems and it seemed like nothing was going right for him. But, in a final attempt to try and save their marriage, he had switched to day shift and so far it seemed as though things might just work out after all. Hopefully both of them would be at the next 'family' gathering.

And at last he glanced over at his own wife, sprawled out across the couch with Aubree on her chest, cooing at her and playing games with her. With a slight frown he noticed that the rest of his children were not in the room and headed upstairs to get them. He opened the door to see six of the cribs filled with a sleeping baby and a nanny taking a well deserved break in the rocking chair in the corner. Against the elderly nanny's wishes, he brought his kids downstairs to the living room- setting the now wide awake babies in two pack-and-plays. Sara's eyes lit up as they always did at the site of the babies and after glancing at Luke crawling around on the floor she lifted her own babies out of the crib and set them on the carpeted floor. Almost instantly Eric took to sliding across the floor towards his probable partner in crime Luke. Catherine and Sara joked about the instant friendship, saying that it was pretty much destined for their kids to end up best friends. At just 11 months, only Eric and Kaylee were already crawling. It was not much of a surprise that they were the most developed as they had been the first ones released from the hospital. But, without a second thought it seemed, Abby crawled over towards the boys, not one to be left out.

Sara looked over at Nick with tears in her eyes. Even though her babies hadn't even turned one yet, it seemed like time was moving too fast. She smiled at her husband, and then back down at her kids. If you would have told her a year and a half ago that she would be married and have seven kids she would have told you that was scientifically impossible. Two years ago she hadn't been in a relationship, and had been pining after Nick instead. But, here she was- surrounded by her family, one that she didn't even know she wanted. Sometimes all it takes is a little surprise to change your entire life.


End file.
